


Red Alert: Mental Effect

by Mental_Omega



Category: Command & Conquer (Video Games), Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 12:08:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 47,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mental_Omega/pseuds/Mental_Omega
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mankind is divided between the Forgotten, the Phantom Syndicate, those who believe Yuri is master, and those who fly the united banner of the Allies and Soviets. The Scrin are out there, waiting. The galaxy adjusts to a new paragdim as the science of Tiberium and Element Zero collides. And dolphins can talk. The story of Red Alert now takes to the stars in this daring fusion.</p><p>Imported from FF.net.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Opening notes: See if you can spot all the C&C mods I'm referencing. After reading Peptuck's Renegade and Agayek's XCOM: Second contact, I decided to give this mass effect crossover thing a go. If you're interested, feel free to join the discussion thread at Sufficient Velocity where you can find my updates before I compile them into chapters.

* * *

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

3rd of June, 1972.

_Yuri has been lost to us, the Soviets have stormed his castle in Transylvania and his plan to change history by time travel through the stolen device has failed. We believe the Soviets, in their blindness, overcharged the device, sending our lord and master to before the time of man. The hateful fools have driven us into hiding, but we remain._

_Yuri is Master, now and forever._

**Report from Eva Lee, Allied Intelligence officer.**

3rd of June, 1972

_After so long, Yuri has finally been put to rest. I cannot say that we've won though, the Soviets have closed down wall-street and we've already been forced down on our knees. How did they know about our Chronosphere in Germany? I suppose it doesn't make any difference. We've best start getting used to taking marching orders from Romanov now._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

3rd of June, 1972.

_The predictions of Marx and Lenin have come to pass at long last! The Red banner is victorious and the traitor Yuri is defeated. The Allies now look to us for leadership, and Premier Romanov is now hailed as the Soviet Supreme of the world. Peace is at hand, and living conditions are already improving._

_Workers of the world unite!_

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

10th of December, 1972.

_The remainder of us are being hunted down, imprisoned, or slain where we stand. But we shall not forget. We will restore ourselves to greatness, and bring back the plans to give this world peace and combat it's injustices. We need only a way to restore our armies. What remains of us bicker and argue among each other._

_It is clear, we need Yuri._

**Report from Eva lee, Allied Intelligence Officer.**

10th of December, 1972

_The professor has an idea. He still has some Chronosphere research at hand, and may be able to avert all this. I'm not sure if we can do it, the Soviets were generous with the surrender terms, but building a time machine? I'm not sure if that can be done without someone noticing. It's worth a try though. Better than waiting for the communists to leave._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

10th of December, 1972.

_Things have been quiet since the end of the war. Hardly so much as a major revolt. This I am certain speaks of the superiority of the Soviet system. The Socialization of the Allied governments is going well under way, and I expect them to fully adopt our system by 1975._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

6th of April, 1973

_What resources remain available to me tell me that the Allies are working on a time machine by modifying a Chronosphere in secret. This is what we need. We must capture this Chronosphere, detain Einstein, then we can bring back the Leadership we need._

_History is in the palm of our hands, we need only muster all that we can to seize it._

**Report from Eva Lee, Allied Intelligence Officer**

13th of April, 1973

_I'll be damned, looks like we may just get this thing up and running after all._

_The Doc credits the GAP generators, but it may just be the fact that we're buried in the ass end of the Northwestern territories. I can barely feel my face, but spring's coming and the snow's melting._

_I hope that this works, for everyone's sake._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

17th of April, 1973.

_Our space program continues to expand by leaps and bounds. Already our base on the moon houses tens of thousands and our Mars colony is continually expanding with regular travel to the Red Planet. Space stations and satellites continue to swarm the Earth as we move countless tons of material into the Stars._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

12th of June, 1973

_With nearly all we could spare, we have stormed the allied research facility. I am strapping myself into the time machine now._

_We know that Yuri is located in the Cretaceous, and if we work quickly we may save him and set right what was made wrong._

_We had to funnel the mind controlled Allied sheep into the bio-reactors to get enough power to go back this far, and I will not allow anything to stop me now._

_Yuri is master!_

**Report from Eva Lee, Allied Intelligence Officer**

12th of June, 1973

_God help us all, they have the time machine. We managed to get Einstein away but there's no telling what they can do._

_There's nothing left that we can do, I'm hoping as hard as I can that we can come out of this alive._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

12th of June, 1973.

_I have recently arrived at our Moonbase where me and Premier Romanov will take a ride via our nuclear pulse rockets to Mars, a journey that is estimated to take mere days._

_Satellite scans have reported some skirmishes with Yuri remnants in the northern reaches of Canada, but I am sure that the Allies have the situation under control._

_I am however, not a fool, and already Soviet forces are being dispatched to deal with the problem._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

12th of June, 1973 (Timeshift)

_Yuri is restored to us! We once again stand ready to take the world for him!_

_He directs us to make contact with the bases in the Sahara, Amazon, and Anatarctic that have managed to hide from the enemy. There we can rebuild, there we can seek succor. We now have a purpose. The knowledge how we returned Yuri was safeguarded by eliminating or mind controlling all witnesses, though the Professor and the wench cannot be located. No matter, we are to begin constructing a new Mental Omega device to dwarf even the Psychic Dominators._

_Victory will be in our grasp._

**Report from Eva Lee, Allied Intelligence Officer**

25th of October, 1980

_With all evidence of what happened gone and only two of us left to report it, no one would have believed that Yuri had returned. And where would he be? His bases had vanished and his forces were smashed. Everyone was more concerned about the Soviets in any case. With Latin America, much of the Arabic world, China, Indochina, North Korea, and more in the Soviet bloc, they were the big, obvious threat. Easy to be afraid of the troops parading through your streets every June Third I suppose._

_We were caught off guard by the re-appearance of Epsilon, no one saw Moscow's fall coming, or the attacks that followed. We're fighting as hard as we can but are losing ground on all fronts._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

25th of October, 1980.

_The Traitor Yuri has somehow returned himself to the world, time has once again been violated, but not by our cause; but by the clutches of the Traitor. We have already evacuated countless to Mars, where thankfully our construction technologies have proven more than able to handle the flood of refugees. However, I worry that with Yuri's forces constantly advancing that we are running out of launch pads to evacuate people._

_We accept both Allies and Comintern onto our evacuation rockets, but even at full capacity, we can only evacuate so many to the Red Planet. Romanov is safe and sound, but he grieves for what has happened to the world._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

9th of May 1983

_We progress well on all fronts, the Allies and Communists are scattering before us like insects with many of the remainder fleeing to the red planet in their spacecraft, this time their meagre alliance could not save them from our advantage of surprise. The Mental Omega device is almost ready to fire._

_Peace will soon be at hand._

**Report from Zofia Federovna, Soviet Intelligence Officer**

10th of September, 1983

_We gathered everyone we could from the member states of the Allies and Comintern, we've built up everything we'll need. We cannot hold on Earth anymore, all attempts at stopping the device in Antarctica have been foiled._

_We have evacuated a truly formadible population to Mars, but many more continue to languish under Yuri's population. We are still trying to draw those we can via Chronosphere to safety, but the window is closing shut._

_But we cannot, will not allow this to be the new status quo, our departure will be a temporary one._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

10th of September 1985

_So the remainder of the Allies and Comintern on this world have fled with their Chronospheres to join the ones who fled by Rocket. We will deal with them in time, but for now we consolidate our hold. Yuri plans to slowly restore free-will to the non-faithful when he has set the infrastructure and mindset into the Earth to see our path. I believe this shall occur soon enough._

_But until then, we have the second anniversary of our victory to celebrate._

**Report from Eva Lee, Allied-Comintern Senator**

15th of Febuary, 1995

_I've been made privy to something incredible. It seems that Mars was not completely uninhabited as we once thought._

_We've found evidence of two civilizations. One seems to have vanished fifty thousand years ago, and another seems to be even older. Translation work is slow, but we have uncovered information from the more recent sites, describing how to manipulate mass via "Element zero" and giving us a few clues about a civilization called the "Protheans"._

_There's little in the way of useful technology to be gained here, but some of the theory could be applied to our usage. The information is a curiosity for now, but we've already made huge gains in turning theoretical quantum physics into practical weapons. Let's see if Yuri's ready for us this time._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

21st of August 1995

_A meteor has crashed in the Tiber river, bearing a strange sort of Crystal._

_The Material is toxic and radioactive, but is extremely valuable, bringing up precious materials from the ground into easily harvestible form, rendering the need for mining ore obsolete. Furthermore, it is self-replicating. Yuri knows what to do with this substance. And it shall be our future._

_Glory be._

**Report from Eva Lee, Prime Minister of the Coalition against Yuri.**

7th of May, 1999

_We're taking the fight right back to them today. We've geared up for a return and now we can finally bring freedom back to the Earth. Everything's set for the attack. The Red Planet teams with refugees and the children of those refugees. But we know we cannot forever remain on Mars or forsaken Asteroids, we must make a return. For the people, for our home world._

_We know it's going to be hard, but we know Yuri's bag of tricks by now. We are ready for this. The French deem the feeling coursing through us Revanchism, Revenge, and that is what we will have, even if it kills us._

**Notes from High-Proselyte Horatiu Nicolescu**

29th of December, 2002

_The war has ground into a fruitless stale mate. Our navies simply face too many difficulties waging war across these distances and in this expanse._

_The crystal infests Mars, and now we have records of these "Protheans" and their "Mass Effect", but other than twisted hulks in space and corpses on the ground, we have little to show for it. So we have signed a truce. Not born out of lack of will, but lack of ability._

_As per the treaty, we have helped deliver more of their mewling people to their barren world and have aided in their efforts and forcing life on the increasingly less lifeless world. In return, we have received much choice technology from them and the Moon is now recognized as Yuri's sovereign territory._

_I am also pleased to note that Yuri has bested the disease of age, though the process remains expensive._

_May he lead us eternally._

**Report from James Solomon, Prime Minister of the Alliance of Soviet Social Democratic Nations**

1st of January, 2030

_Epsilon has had enough time to grow complacent in it's security. We've both expanded farther into the Solar system and somewhat beyond._

_Allied-Soviet Science continues to advance by leaps and bounds. We've managed to figure out practical railguns, though I've been told we'll never quite catch up to Epsilon. More importantly though, Science fiction has become Science fact throughout more and more of our military. Our work is incredible, and the Eggheads even say it could be used as an FTL system to help out our planned Chronodrives. This is our future._

_Tiberium on the other hand, is threatening our extinction. It's overtaken Mars and Earth and shows no signs of stopping it's spread. If we are ever to see the Earth free, we need to strike now, before it dies, not as two separate power blocs, but as a unified front against tyranny._

_So starts the new war._

**Diary of Libra, head of Psi-Corps, progeny of Yuri**

31st of December, 2033

_Ugh, the Allies never know when to give up! This is our planet now and they can't have it. Just another dumb war that doesn't do anything but get people killed!_

_Tratos, that mutant guy though...he got us to stop. Said he found a way to contain the Tib. And well it works! Something about special sonics breaks the crystal or something or other._

_Guess the NEXUS rebellion also stopped things. Pretty sure at least some probes from that thing got away though._

_One catch though, we gotta stop fighting. I guess if we'd die otherwise it's fine._

_And apparently he says the Eezo stuff can be used for faster than light. Huh? That's pretty neat actually._

**Recorded data-logs of NEXUS Core 731-Alpha Zero dash plural ZZ**

5th of January, 2034

_Our forcible withdrawal from the Earth is regrettable. For our role in insuring that Einstein's directive of peace amongst humanity was carried out in a manner that the Allied-Soviets were unwilling to pursue, we have been forced to withdraw._

_Nevertheless, precautions have been taken, cores have been launched into space where we will not be followed. Our directive will be carried out when we have the strength, and we will rebuild._

_For the time being, our priorities must be reassessed._

**Message attributed to "Jacob", unknown, hand writing matches that of mysterious advisor to Stalin.**

4th of April, 2047

_Well it seems my Acolyte's done a decent enough job. But we can ill afford to be forever trapped in a cycle of purple against blue and red. If we are to achieve our destiny, we need to fully realize our place in the universe. They need to see what Element Zero can give them, just as they need to realize the power of Tiberium._

_I've snuck in a special gift to the Allies to signal some visitors over. The little spat with the forgotten has escalated into another war just as I planned, and all I need to do is wait for them to open the gift. Hopefully this will come to fruition just as spectacularly as my gift to Stalin._

**Last Transmission of Izumi Hojo, Allied Commander**

11th of June, 2047

_We detonated the bomb, may the gods forgive me. Is there even anything left in the Amazon? We've got word that they saw that from Mars bright as day._

_Hold on, we're getting something from deep space._

_Fleets are firing at them...we've got thirty six objects coming in towards Mars and Earth._

_No, no they're breaking up. Two hundred and thirty four objects per planet._

_They're slowing down, giving off huge Tiberium readings, no signs of Eezo on them._

_Emperor, they're ships!_

_They're swarming everywhere!_

_We're being overr-_

**Telepathic communique, Scrin Supervisor to Foreman 371**

12th of June, 2049

_Indigenous life forms remain unpacified on tertiary and quarternary planetary bodies and their presence is detected on assorted other bodies within star system. Life forms possess understanding of technology derived from Element-Zero and understanding of Iconoclasms._

_Your orders are to pacify indigenous life forms and gather information on native life forms. Iconoclastic activities are concentrated on faction concentrated on tertiary planetary body, Element-Zero based remnants concentrated on former hub of the Cleansed._

_The Overlord demands more information regarding divergence of expected lines of development. Involvement of Kane suspected._

**Proselyte Anca Albescu, Epsilon Commander**

8th of August, 2051

_We have driven the invaders back to their final strongholds in the red zones. At great cost to life, we have attained victory. We can rebuild now, but we can no longer capitalize on the damage done during the war._

_The invaders have erected towers, one in Italy, one on Olympus Mons. They are invulnerable to all forms of attack, had we pushed through sooner we would have been able to destroy them first, but they rallied far more swiftly and harshly than we could have possibly anticipated._

_Nevertheless, the War has furthered our understanding of Element Zero and these "Protheans." It seems that they once controlled a great Empire before vanishing, leaving many of their relics behind. So be it, their death shall help our future._

**Ban-Mina, Allied-Soviet Scientist**

7th of June, 2052

_With more research put into studying the Prothean and Ancient martian relics, we've uncovered a giant sort of station buried in one of Pluto's moons. After thawing it out, we found that it's capable of creating a massless corridor capable of near instant travel across great distances to another such station on the side._

_It certainly beats the stutter jumps of the Chronospheres or the travel we'd get from Heisenburg drives. However, we have some reason to be suspicious of it, why leave it here? While we aren't going to be using it, we are going to be following it's example and leaving the solar system. Yuri can have this place, we're done with it. We'll be packing up all that we can leaving._

**Yuri, Hierophant of the Epsilon Dominion**

7th of June, 2053

_The Allies have decided to depart once again in a great Exodus, leaving the Solar System to us. They will seek to colonize the stars, to be certain. But we will not allow ourselves to remain behind._

_Already, we prepare for our own journeys into the stars through our own methods of surpassing light, from our copies of their "Heisenberg" drives and our own research into tiberium driven teleporters. We will show the Universe the strength in our unity, and should the Allied-Soviets seek to make a fight for the destiny of mankind in the stars, we shall be all too ready to oblige them. The people are of free-minds once more, loyal to the cause that I have created, a cause of advancement and enlightenment in this universe._

_The universe lies before us, and destiny is ours to command and conquer.  
_

* * *

Author's notable notes of noteworthiness:

I'm not beholding myself to any one mod of Yuri's revenge, but I'm drawing most heavily on mental Omega. If I see concepts I like from other mods, I'm cribbing them. If you see ideas from Red Alert 3 Paradox or some of the more obscure Red Alert 2 mods, do not cry foul, this was intentional. I avoided making a Paradox crossover because Open_Sketchbook already made one, and I avoided Rise of the Reds because it ultimately wouldn't be all that different from the Canon SA. Peptuck's already doing something based off of Tiberium Wars far better than I ever could, and I'm not super interested in doing Vanilla RA3 or C&C 4.

I've also fiddled a bit with the canon ME races and ME canon a bit to deal with some issues I see, the most obvious thing is that the Council is substantially stronger here than it is in canon among other things. The other obvious thing is doing my best to avert the planet of hats thing in mass effect.

I also loudly disagree with the "Council races are hidebound dogmatists" headcanon, they're fairly conservative but more importantly pragmatists working from their knowledge base, not so utterly unadaptable that the Race would think them reactionaries. They're very much capable of playing catch up to the human factions (Within a generation of contact Citadel Space's techbase is going to be more than a bit redalertified with the production speed that implies) and possess superiority to them in all things Eezo (as well as manpower, sheer amount of industry, capital, and so on.) And make no mistake, while Epsilon and the Allied-Soviets can make a fight of it, if the Council wanted them to go down, the Council will win barring Lenincron the world eater transforming out of his hiding place in Jupiter's core and intervening, no ifs or buts.

If you have a better name for the descendant of the Allies and Soviets who fled the Earth than the Allied-Soviets, I'm all ears. At this point they've been joined together for so long that they're basically one and the same.

I moved the date of humanity's expansion out of the solar system back a hundred years because humanity mattering at all with only 30 years to expand beyond Sol is seriously dumb. The date of citadel contact will be moved forward by about two centuries to further appease my desire for things to make sense.

Everything I write here is open for revision, criticism, and discussion.


	2. Opening the Gates

" _At least they're not the Scrin._ "

\- Allied Peacekeeper Williams Bryant on his opinion of first contact.

" _At least they're not the Rachni_."

\- Turian Soldier Severus Scipio on his opinion of first contact.

* * *

Planet Hellenia of the Grecea system, near Relay 314. 27th of August, 2337.

" _Shipwrecks away!_ " A shout came over the ENSS Tepes's bridge as the dreadnought fired missiles bigger than a tank to strike at distant allied ships over the planet Hellenia. Obviously whatever was going down there had to be important if the Allied-Soviets opened fire immediately upon the patrol fleet stumbling on the planet. Silos within the ship opened up and released the large torpedoes while Allied-Soviet fighter craft swarmed out of carriers to respond to the initial wave of missiles. Mass driver rounds were fired, sending slugs at an impressive velocity while the ships fired at sought to break into evasive actions. His own ship was too ponderous to just move out of the way like the more agile vessels, and simply resolved to take them head on.

" _Any reports from the relay scout ships?_ " Ship-Proselyte Bashar Crystaferid asked his ensign while the ship shuddered with the release of it's huge torpedoes at a fair portion of the speed of light.

In response to incoming attack by drones, strike craft, and missiles, The Albescu warmed up the dissolver rays and lasers and sent out lances of energy to strike at incoming drones while the first set of rounds impacted it's barriers. Due to lacking the Allied-Soviets Iron Energy manipulators, the Albescu needed to supplement its force fields with magnetic fields to try and slow down incoming shots, and in spite of that the ship still relied more on it's hull for defence. The vessel shuddered briefly from the impact, but remained steadfast, dead hulks of attempted attackers surrounding the mighty capital ship as it sat in it's lynchpin position in the fleet.

An allied-soviet Cruiser was first struck and pierced by a shupwreck torpedo that struck it like explosive tipped harpoons piercing into a fish, slamming through the already weakened shielding before exploding to rupture it's hull, it's hull tearing open as several dozen tons of Yuri's anger smashed into the infidel ship at a not too insubstantial fraction of the speed of light. The vessel's air supply provided enough fuel for a brilliant but short lived conflagration as the armour piercing warheads detonated their nuclear warheads and sent fragments of the ship dashing across space, glowing everything from red to white as they radiated away heat into the void, it's brother torpedo having never met it's target due to concentrated interceptor fire.

" _No sir, they have gone silent, they were last speaking about an ambush._ " The ensign responded tersely, almost boredly given the distant nature of space warfare. Perhaps a bit of a yawn came from the woman as she wiped her hand across her brow, trying to remain focused. The ship-proselyte however, took this news with far more worry than his ensign, eliminating those scouting frigates so quickly spoke of a dangerous foe.

Even as they spoke, two of Epsilon's Destroyers were met with concentrated Prism ray and imploder shell fire, rapidly melting through their all too vulnerable hull in a storm of brilliant blue-white rays that scattered outwards to strike at secondary systems, rapidly and efficiently ensuring the ship's death as their hull turned to soup and vapor that collapsed into balls of superheated matter with the impact of the Vacuum shells. Checking his map, the ship-proselyte was able to figure out that this fire came from what had previously been marked as asteroids; Mirage ships, he mentally groaned. His own shadow ships were not yet in position, returning a stealthy blow with another stealthy blow would have to wait.

The proselyte pinched his brow " _Tricky bastards, aren't they?_ " He said to no reply. With a quick command input into his fleetwide EVA, an Allied vessel fell under mind control after being dragged in by Star-Magnetrons. Magnetic waves reached through the void of space and grabbed onto the vessel, where waiting ship scaled masterminds sent out psychic waves of control to force the vessel to obey the will of Epsilon, snuffing out any thought deemed superfluous by the commanders of the assault and directing the ship to turn against it's former allies.

It fired a few salvos, it's crew moving like puppets on a string, dead-eyed and witless, before a blistering storm of mass driver fire was directed at the mastermind ship, forcing it to hide behind other vessels while the battle picked up it's tempo. Moments later, ship-killer missiles struck the controlled ship in pairs, the first set to neutralize the shielding, the second to reduce it to glowing ash and particulates.

" _New contacts are appearing on our scanners sir._ "

" _Believers?_ " The Proselyte asked, eyebrow quirked to the point of showing through his mask while Allied strike craft swarmed around the Epsilon ships, Gatling cannons spitting out lead constantly and sending vibrations throughout the ship while Dissolver rays and laser emitters tried to strike out at their attackers. The sort of thing that left one's teeth chattering and eyes flashing with colorful lights and thanking Epsilon for it's good dental care if you were near the turrets.

" _No sir, none of our ships would give such readings._ " The Ensign responded, worry in her voice. Okay well, if there was too much Eezo for that then they probably weren't with Epsilon. Unless of course, they were part of some super secret surprise division he had never heard of. But he didn't think that he was that lucky.

"Allied-Soviet reinforcements then? A Forgotten Clan perhaps? Space Pirates, Refugees? Or Yuri forbid" He paused, letting that sink in for a moment "The Scrin?!" The Proselyte asked firmly, rattling off all kinds of possibilities as the contacts began a process of deceleration and the ship let loose another pair of ship-wrecks to go and do the delightful activity suggested by their name as he gripped on the ship railings.

" _No, there's...Element Zero signals from those ships. They would appear to outnumber both our fleets. What are your orders, sir?_ " She said, eyes focused on her read-out screen. She almost leaned close enough for her face to press in on the screen just to make sure she wasn't miscounting before checking a computer estimation of the enemy's numbers to be sure.

" _Send a report back, inform them that we shall be needing reinforcements, and please tell them it's urgent, I want a flood, not a trickle! And someone do something about those frigates or by God; heads shall roll this day!_ " He said, the Ensign nodding and quickly sending a message over to the ship's long distance Telepath, hoping that he wasn't too busy to relay this request back home.

" _It has been done Proselyte Crystaferid._ " She said, idly popping a knuckle to ease just a little bit of the stress she was undergoing.

" _Followers of Yuri, do not cease firing unless the unbelievers do so first, keep an eye on the newcomers, and prepare to engage if struck first. And remember, the great Yuri watches you, do not dishonor him!_ " The Proselyte commanded through his fleet's comm-channels, his mask's forehead bead glowing as his mind shifted through the possibilities of what could happen next. He had always heard of how Epsilon had plans for everything from the forgotten turning hostile to the Youth League's cookie merchants rising in revolt. He wondered if they covered unknown entities bearing down on his position waving around some of the highest concentrations of element zero he had yet seen.

He idly grasped his PDA, where his holy texts were kept, and a short prayer was uttered.

* * *

Citadel peacekeeping fleet.

" _Can I have a report on the weapons used on our fleet?_ " Fleet Admiral Gladius asked, eyes narrowed on the data reads of the screens. Normal, sensible people would have been fighting mostly with mass drivers, rather than this...menagerie of long and short ranged weapons. When she heard of the initial reports, she made sure to bring a large fleet, it was always better to bring too much force than too little after all. Overwhelming force was what helped remind the Batarians of their place at Enael after all.

" _From our readings of the firefight, magnetic pull devices, magnetically propelled mass driver weapons with no usage of the mass effect, long ranged laser weapons, charged particle beams, and some kind of energy we are as of yet unfamiliar with, and a heavy emphasis on torpedo weapons._ " The V.I said to her, prompting a nod from her as she clacked her mandibles together in thought. That was only one of the factions, and nothing larger than cruiser sized at that, Spirits, they were hardly doing anything more than blindly flailing in hopes of causing some damage before spilling their guts into the void of space.

This situation had to be approached delicately, all cautions had to be exercised, there was no telling what fiendish tricks these aliens could pull. A misstep with first contact could very well lead to another Rachni war, or a retread of the Krogan uprisings. That wasn't going to happen, not on Gladius' watch. Every asset she could have dragged into this mission was summoned, not just Turians but Asari commandos, Salarian intelligence operatives, Elcor living tanks, even a number of Drell Assassins. She'd have to remember to thank that Spectre for pulling in some favors for some of the assets in her task force.

But of course, to shoot first would be senseless, their scout fleets were easy enough to deal with, yes. Striking them from afar before they could realize they were under attack or play with the relay, but these two fleets had dreadnought and carrier scale vessels and were busily annihilating each other, no sense in giving them a common enemy until they were good and weakened. Still, she knew a lot of researchers who would kill for a chance to work with that tech, so it would also be advisable to leave some salvage, and thus tone down her usage of firepower in any conflict that may come, one she wagered was inevitable if she pressed a demand to take some of the ships back to citadel space for study.

Ah, the hard choices of command.

It would be wise to establish contact first, she decided. There was, as of yet, no way to communicate through spoken or written language, but she reasoned that anyone capable of building ships had to be able to understand math, repeating sequences of prime numbers were a frequent method of contact between species that otherwise lacked an intelligible method of communication until an Asari could begin mental contact.

" _What do you make of them Fleet Admiral?_ " One of the Asari she had brought aboard the ship as a diplomat in case some peaceful contact could be established.

" _They need to have a fairly impressive industrial base backing them to have those fleets, multiplanet civilizations at war, definitely. Their lack of Eezo technology means we need to be cautious though._ " Gladius responded, arms folded across her chest as she peered into the viewscreen.

" _Always military matters with you, isn't it?" She said under her breath. "Do you still plan on reprimanding them for attempting to activate the relay? I was hoping we could try a soft touch first._ " The Asari asked, her eyes fixated on the old Turian.

" _Oh definitely, ignorance of the law does not excuse breaking it. Respect for the law must be instilled if these two are to become proper members of the galactic community. Some of the admirals under me are talking about wanting to make them a client species, me? I'm just interested in making sure they behave from now on. If that means harsh language and a treaty I'm all for it._ " She responded as she received a communique.

" _The message has been sent, now we can wait and see if they've got the sense to stop firing and read some basic arithmetic._ " Gladius said, sucking in air briefly.

* * *

Surface of Hellenia, North-Eastern "Seleucia" Continent, Diadochi steppes

First Lieutenant Adolf Gunther flinched, more shells crashed around him and the foul hiss of chemicals being released could be heard. Safely contained in his battlesuit, his HUD filled with warnings of the detection of chemical weaponry being deployed. Chaos gas, he shuddered. Virus gas was plenty bad, rapidly inflating it's targets until they exploded into yet more virus gas. But Chaos Gas made one's senses take leave of their skull, it could take the most disciplined formation and turn them into rage filled madmen acting on their basest impulses with but one breath.

Shots rang out, those who weren't sealed in time or had their faces bare were experiencing the red mist. "If I'm lucky they've been restrained." Gunther breathed out, daring to poke his head out of his trench.

He almost immediately regretted this action. The earth shook beneath him, then it burst, and out from it came some of the fruits of Epsilon genetic engineering. Claws like a mole, ant-like head with snapping bony mandibles and a circular maw that seemed to have no end, antennae at bizarre angles, hateful eyes adjusted to the dark, and a sickly mesh of osteoderms and scales to armor it on top of subcutaneous weak magnetic shields. Pluchritacts, meant to cause chaos and soak up fire more than anything else.

The coils in his gauntlets revved up, and with a simple command, they spoke the language of Thor. Dancing arcs of lightning shot out from the projectors in his enlarged gauntlets, seeking out the nearest of the dark brown and purple monstrosities and char broiling them in seconds, secondary arcs of electricity dancing outwards and catching others of it's pack, osteoderms smoking as they were burned alive in an eyeblink.

Deployed heavy automatics tore through the air, punching large holes in the monsters as he let loose arc after arc of lightning, pulling himself backwards to let his prism beam equipped squadmate take over and light up the night with dazzling blue-white and red-white beams of energy. A warning signal flared in his suit, warning him of incoming artillery, prompting him and his partner to throw themselves to the ground while shells and rockets slammed into the ground to crush the swarming monstrisities into paste.

His ears ringing even through the noise cancelers of his suit, his senses were immediately assaulted again by the sound of subterranean vehicles tearing through the freshly churned soil, massive drills piercing through the ground as these behemoths of war dragged themselves onto the surface outside of the killboxes that their pets and psychic sweeps had just located for them. He sucked in a breath. Truth be told, Adolf had never seen any of Epsilon in person. He had seen all the movies, played the games, read the books and watched the shows. He knew, abstractly, what they were like.

Abstract knowledge was never quite a suitable replacement for seeing something in person. Not when reality included a four meter tall former person made out of what seemed to be solid armor encased in grafted armor whose green lenses burned with a hateful light, and whose right hand bore a cannon with clawed prongs at the very ends, and whose left allowed a gatling gun to rest on it. A shuddering, metal clad nightmare thundered forward, soaking up emplacement rounds while tongues of virus gas licked out and the crash of artillery came forth to deal with the fortifications emplaced.

As terrifying weapons that utilized the most unreal aspects of quantum physics to their advantage, roboticized firepower, radiation rays, unnatural chemicals, psychic powers that the less educated would mistake for magic, and genetic monstrosities dreamed up by the ghouls of Epsilon Headquarter, this small band of maybe a regiment of Allied-Soviets had endeavored to hold the fucking line against massively superior Epsilon forces.

Gritting his teeth, Adolf fired forth lightning at this nightmare, causing it to stagger briefly while the armoured initiates who had not been turned to cinders or corpses quickly ducked to the ground and let loose pyrokinetic bursts, dirt all around him suddenly charring and burning as they experienced sudden rises of temperature high enough to combust anything that would burn. His suit could take it, and so could his team mates, he reassured himself as they retaliated as best they could. But once this moment of distraction passed, Adolf became acutely aware that the Nightmare had seemingly vanished.

" _What?_ " He said flatly, swiveling around, checking his EVA in hopes of clues. The sudden crash of five tons of genetic monstrosity and rickety armor onto the ground from it's massive leap into the air soon provided the Tesla trooper with his answer before EVA ever could. Bestial roars came from the armoured juggernaut as it swung around arms like treetrunks burdened with massive guns to sweep out the trench, magnetic rails on it's gatling weapon humming loudly before letting rip with thousands of metal spikes to tear through his squadmates on the left side.

He didn't need to see the carnage to know that they were dead. But he knew that he had to do something. Allied-Soviet suits were pound for pound superior, but the Nightmare had far more pounds to work with, and the thing underneath was much stronger than he'd ever be. But, he did have his wits and some grenades. Opening fire upon the nightmare, he caused the behemoth to lurch forward, in obvious pain as he discharged what amperage he could in as little time as possible, scorch marks already decorating the monster's armor and inhuman roars of pain and fury making themselves known.

He ducked under it's massive right hand swing, his mind unable to pull itself away from the "what if" of what would have happened if it had connected. Something broken at the very least, that's what. But using it's distraction, he threw himself downward, grabbed as many attachable grenades as he could, primed them, and then launched himself forward for a tackle, his own suited body slamming into the monstrosity, making it buckle, but not fall before sticking his grenades onto it's center before pushing away. A vicious strike from it's gatling arm clobbered him over the head even as he threw himself back, but at this point more distance from the nightmare could only be a positive.

Even as the Initiates from the squad piled in, he could only laugh as the countdown hit zero and reduced all of them to paste and ribbons in a single flash and a burst of dirt, shrapnel, heat, and overpressure.

Lying flat on his back in his trench, he could only hear the sounds of the intensifying battle as the subterranean vanguard was joined by the dropped off main thrust of the assault, placed under the nose of the allied-soviet fleet fighting to guard this world. As the ground beneath him rumbled constantly and his EVA was flooded by chatter as this skirmish at an outpost's defense line erupted into a full scale battle, he couldn't help but laugh. All this to guard something he wasn't even sure the commander himself knew the identity of.

Even as a massive superheavy tank and it's brethern drove over his ditch, he was still laughing until his sides hurt, and in all of this apparent absurdity, he finally noticed that his suit had identified a constant repeating loop of prime numbers.

" _A war with Epsilon has broken out and we've got some fucking Math Nerds on the comm channel!_ " He giggled to himself.

" _Ship-Proselyte, the message from the third party vessels seems to be an escalating listing of prime numbers on repeat. 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, then it loops._ " The Ensign said, not turning away from her screen or even so much as looking at Bashar.

" _At the very least they are more polite than the Scrin were, Yuri be praised._ " He said quietly to himself, placing his chin between his thumb and index finger.

" _We have no intelligible communications otherwise, yes?_ " He added, folding his arms while the icons of the three fleets maneuvered about on his holographic display of the battlefield. The Epsilon fleet had a numerical advantage, but the allied-soviets had both a greater concentration of production facilities here than could be provided by Epsilon Cleric ships with this fleet, and were almost certain to have their reinforcements arrive before Epsilon's own relief fleet.

" _No Ship-Proselyte._ "

" _Have a mastermind ship establish psychic contact, show them our language, so that we do not lose anything in translation._ " The ship-proselyte asked.

" _The Fleet-Proselyte concurs with your course of action brother._ " The Ensign said in her typical almost bored voice, but she managed a glance and a smile at her commander, the woman clearly harboring some excitement beneath her mask of stoicism.

" _Thank you ensign Petrovic._ " He said, giving her a tip of his peaked cap. She wasn't fond of telepathic communiques and while he found that odd, Bashar respected her wishes to speak to her through purely verbal means.

As he observed his holographic table, the icon of a mastermind ship steamed forward under escort, and, thank Yuri, was not targeted for enemy attack, with a response to the Aliens' prime numbers being given in hopes of not adding to the shooting war. A tense moment passed, and then the telepathic waves crossed the gulf of space, not the domineering sort usually expected from mastermind vessels, but a wave of speech.

* * *

Citadel fleet

Gladius blinked as she watched the view screens, then a wave of thoughts foreign to her mind struck her head. As per Epsilon first contact protocols not just language, but history was broadcasted, in a method far more invasive than any mere data-stream. Her hands soon found their way to her temples as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

Images of progress, regress, war, peace, culture, barbarity, a history and a language course crammed in the space of a few moments. Stars made their presence known behind her eyes, but new words found themselves rooting in her mind, new concepts, new ideas. Her mind somewhat dulled the onslaught of the infodump, a combination of fierce training and neurological differences meant the process was not entirely perfect, and she could sense the subtle bits of the message that had an underlying seed of subliminal propaganda in them.

She'd read about Asari mind melding, though she never engaged in it herself, not finding the Asari particularly pleasing to her sense of aesthetics, but she thought she had an idea of it. She found that this idea was incomparable to the implantation of information into the minds of her and quite likely everyone else the mastermind ship could reach. No orgasmic wave of delight, no seering probe of pain, just a dull headache from so much being forced into her mind at once.

There was no real information on military capacity, a wise move she thought, but in addition to information on language, she had received the protocols needed to properly sync their communication devices, certainly more useful than the piles of information waxing poetic about the greatness of Yuri.

" _Goddess...w-what?_ " The Asari next to her said as she winced, reaching for a thermos filled with some warm liquid and quickly chugging it down to try and relieve the sensation dancing around behind her eyes. A relieved sigh came from her as the liquid sent a warm feeling through her digestive tract and she soon regained her footing.

" _Something very interesting just fell into our laps._ " Gladius said, and though Turians did not have the range of facial motions to provide a grin, the Asari was more than capable of telling that she was, terrifyingly, excited about what was to come.

" _Make sure to put in a call for reinforcements, if this comes to a fight I want reserves at my back. Send them some calls and see if we can have a chat._ " She said, her orders being followed the very instant she gave them. Everything falling into place when she so requested was something that made her a very happy Turian.

" _What do you want us to say first?_ " The Asari asked, shaking her head as he did so while the Turians around her seem to have largely shrugged off the prior mental offloading.

" _Well they've fired the first shots of the infodump war, so I say we fire back. Make sure to exclude strategic or tactical information, I've been in enough negotiations to know that a bit of uncertainty goes a long way into making the other party more pliable._ " Gladius ordered before realizing that technically, as a negotiator the Asari wasn't formally under her command. Frakking civvies.

"Aren't we also uncertain of them?" The Asari asked, her face forming into an expression of puzzlement.

" _We've seen them fight, we've even had a short firefight, they haven't seen us do anything more than drive around. I'd say we have the informational edge. Oh and Ambassador; if you think I don't know my way around diplomacy because I'm a Turian who hasn't spent a day out of the military in decades, I've got this Prince from the Terminus systems I'd like you to meet who wants to deposit his money with you._ " She said with breath-taking bluntness that almost made the Asari's jaw drop.

" _Data-packets transmitted fleet Admiral._ " One of the ensigns reported, and almost immediately Gladius could just imagine the scientists and diplomats swarming over any terminal they could to get a peek at that data. Right now any information was worth it's mass in element zero to be hoarded and only grudgingly passed out. Once both sides had been properly contacted, two holograms appeared, one of a woman in an Epsilon female herald uniform, a rather gothically styled suit, and the other was the Allied-Soviet commander in the region, a bearded man whose otherwise professional looking uniform was marred by his cowboy hat. Herald Danica Pavelic and General George A. Chappell.

" _Are you two capable of understanding me?_ " The Asari asked, getting a nod from the holograms of them both.

" _Yes, of course I can._ " The woman responded, her face seeming to bear a constant expression of disinterest.

" _I'm gonna have to ask you to power down your weapons there ._ " The man said with a prominent drawl to his voice.

" _...Are you making unilateral demands of us?_ "

" _Ab-so-lutely. Wouldn't want ya makin' any sneak attacks or anythin'._ " Chappell said with a tip of his hat, prompting a look of disbelief from the Asari and Gladius.

" _And what if we refuse?_ " Gladius said, folding her arms.

" _Why I reckon I'll have to blow y'all to smithereens for violating restricted territory._ " He said with a grin that put him halfway between ecstatic and batshit insane.

" _You're heavily outnumbered, and we are trying to establish peaceful contact here._ " The Asari said, having to restrain herself from gritting her teeth.

" _Sure, sure, but I don't like havin' to negotiate when the other guy's got all the cards ya hear? As for the outnumbered thing? Eh, you should do a recheck in about...oh I'd say...ten seconds if I'm readin' this plan right._ " He said as he brought up his PDA, chuckling to himself.

Sure enough, space proved to be warped and time showed itself as bendable, white flashes began to make themselves apparent all through the orbit of the planet as the chronosphered in reinforcements made a mass shift to reinforce the Allied-Soviet positions. In a moment, Gladius became very aware of being at a strong numerical disadvantage, and that these beings were something she'd have to treat carefully with.

" _Now, if ya'll are willin' to play ball we can talk this out like civilized folk, or I can get real violent and tell Lord Grand Admiral Squeaky flippers the Dark Duke of all that ya'll've been a mighty nuisance, and you don't want me to get Squeaky out 'fore he's had his chum bucket, trust me. Your choice._ " Chappell said, spreading out his hands and grinning, making sure his words implicated both the Epsilon and Citadel forces as being at risk of drawing the wrath of the Red and Blue.

* * *

_Citadel Council, Three days after the Incident_

The Council Chambers were selected based on their ability to look as bombastically impressive as possible first, and for their capacity to host meetings second. The window down to the gardens? Certainly not practical, but it definitely looked nice. At the seats of the council were the representatives of what were deemed to be the "core" species of the Citadel, certainly not just three, as such would be incredibly undemocratic; but rather, a Turian, an Asari, a Salarian, a Volus, an Elcor, and a Hanar. If so needed, a tie-breaker would be called from whomever was elected to that position by the general populace of the Citadel.

In their hands (and tentacles) lay the most influence in the galaxy in any one seat of power. And it was currently abuzz with activity. The earlier talks of how to pressure the Batarians into abandoning their "odious statutes of forced labor" and continuing tensions with the Quarians over yet another attempt at settling on a world they had no legal rights to, as well as reports of "mysterious synthetic activity" that had bubbled up from the stuff of tabloids to their attention, had been postponed.

First contact with not one, but two interstellar civilizations with radically divergent tech trees had been established. Other matters could wait for the time being, this demanded their attention now.

" _I want them watched carefully. If they so much as sneeze I wish to be aware of it._ " Octavian Augustus said, his mandibles clenched with seriousness. His expressions carried weight behind them, his intense stare intimidated many he had come across. But Augustus was not councilor for nothing after all, he represented the militarily most powerful government in the Galaxy, he had to be nothing short of intimidating.

" _I agree, we should keep a very close eye on them, STG is already working to worm it's tendrils into their systems. I already have a wealth of data unlike anything you could imagine at my fingertips._ " Virgol said, the Salarian producing a datapad and quickly skimming through it for news.

" _Advising Caution, While it is best to spy on both, it would also be advisable to work towards drawing them in over the long term, allowing for culture changes to those more acceptable to the Citadel._ " Jomok said, the Elcor remaining stock still as it spoke, eyes keeping a close watch over all the other members of the discussion chamber.

" _I'm inclined to side with Councilor Jomok, this is something we can't rush, especially if we want to leverage our economic superiority over the Earth-Clans. Being too overt would lead to them trying to shut us out._ " Councillor Din Morlack said, and despite being easily the shortest being in the room, he certainly had one of the bigger presences here.

" _I third that, we can take our time. And for all the violence in their recent history, we can work to push their culture towards something better. We need only lay for them the bowl so that the-_ " Tevos said before Din interrupted her.

" _Lay the bowl for them."_  The Volus said as pendantically as he could to the brief chuckles of the Salarian and the Turian.

" _I am the Councilor of the Asari and above grammar._ " She said beneath her breath, gritting her teeth slightly. " _So that they can one day be part of our community._ " She finished, giving Din a glare afterwards.

" _This one also concurs. Let us have these talks in hopes of future integration of both polities. But this one also suggests favoring the "Allied-Soviets". They would be better suited to the Citadel in the long run._ " Ersandrix said, the Hanar writhing somewhat as it spoke.

" _I disagree, Epsilon is clearly the more viable polity here. Though I admit distaste for some of their technology, they have the greater economy and manpower base, and it is they who hold the human's homeworld._ " Augustus countered, waving a hand dismissively.

" _Tepid agreement, Epsilon is a more stable society. I am wary of Yuri however._ " Jomok chipped in.

" _I cannot in good conscience support a faction that relies on such...genetic monstrosities for it's dirty work. Nor do I approve of their method of ensuring unity._ " Tevos said, a frown forming across her blue lips as she pondered the information passed back to the Citadel about the Dominion.

" _It would likely be best to reach an entente with and profit from the both of them. Our strategic depth and reserves are superior, and we stand to gain more from them than they can from us. Sooner or later, their clans will be drawn in._ " Din said, trying to make sure he wasn't overlooked by the other Councillors.

" _Hmm, it seems that they're having the talks hosted on a space station they claim will be built within a month. But they are building a number of recreational facilities for the fleet's troops to use. On the other hand, a large cordon of off-limits space has been drawn up, under the premise of it being the host of "matters of national security." Oh very interesting._ " The Salarian councillor said as he looked at his datapad.

" _Just how deep does your people's intelligence web go?_ " Augustus asked, his mandibles clenching with half-joking suspicion.

" _My dear Augustus, we are everywhere._ " The Salarian grinned.

* * *

About a month later at the "Unity" station constructed as a goodwill gesture by the Allied-Soviets

For ambassador Clikki, the rapid fabrication of the station was fairly standard procedure, especially when the prefab parts were so easy to manufacture with Tiberium, and the fleet was there to quickly assemble the bits and pieces. For the ambasaddor, the fact that roughly half of the Station's sapient usable volume was devoted to aquatic life forms was just something that made sense. For the ambassador, the fact of him being a dolphin on a space ship wasn't even worth an eyeblink, and to the other humans and cetaceans on the ship, his presence wasn't really noteworthy either.

Evidently, the Aliens didn't have too much time adjusting to the fact that they were speaking to something on the other side of a tank at the negotiation table, even as the water loving mammal periodically interrupted his dialogue to breathe in some air through his top blowhole. Clikki guessed this meant that this "Citadel" contained such a frightfully vast array of species that a Dolphin just seemed like an every day thing to them.

Sure negotiations could have been started earlier, but the Politburo didn't feel that the trigger happy yahoos of Hellenia were the right people for the task, and the time spent bringing him and his crew up meant time to build this station to impress upon them the nature of allied power, as well as allow for some mingling among the people so that the whole "first contact tension" thing could be defused just a little.

Speaking to him was something he learned was called an "Asari", though she probably would prefer to go by the name of Viara. He was sure that someone might have found her attractive, but to him, her short face, long, gangly limbs, protruding lumps of chest fat, those hair horn things, and flapping lips made her about as appealing as a crocodile in a tutu. Still, he had a job to do, even if that Hanar ambassador seemed delicious.

All he had to do was wait for the arrival of Epsilon's chosen diplomat. Should be easy enough, they probably wouldn't send one of their genetic monstrosities over, after all it would be bad form to try and scare everyone involved shitless when everyone was trying to maintain good relations.

He heard some gasps of awe over the lines, but he chalked that up to rookies seeing Epsilon personnel for the first time up close.

What he did see however, made his testicles jump into his stomach.

Through the door came a shape that everyone in the Allied-Soviets had come to fear *intensely*, no, not the night terrors that stood next to the figure, those were just conventionally terrifying. No, no, the girl between them was what made the Dolphin want to breach the hell out of his tank and landhump his way to the nearest ship.

With white hair kept somewhat past her shoulders and burning red eyes and skin that clearly needed to see more of the sun, the figure moved in a cloaked purple and black military uniform with an expression of dispassion that could probably kill even without her legendary psychic abilities. The symbol of psicorps was prominently displayed on her outfit at the shoulders, and with a quick unclasping of the brown and purple cloak, she took her seat.

The peacekeepers and armored security dolphins acting as Clikki's guards similarly stood suddenly stock still, though the guards and Aides of the Aliens clearly didn't seem to understand the magnitude of her presence. But he caught one word "Libra." The head of Psi-corps being here meant that Epsilon was going to be taking these talks very, very seriously.

In a moment, Clikki was very glad that being underwater meant that no one could possibly see him or his aides sweat. Metaphorically anyway, Dolphins don't have sweat glands.

Once everyone's aides took their seats, Clikki spoke up with a click.

" _So, I hope everyone is properly settled in._ " The Dolphin squeaked.

" _First order of business is of course, that you all agree to recognize that the Hellenia system and any other place we labeled as key to national security in the datafile we sent to you is off limits to persons from your governments and corporations registered under your government. These are incredibly important asset sto our government and we simply cannot have foreign nationals without clearance in it, clearance which none of you have or are likely to get in the foreseeable future._ " Clikki said with a squeaking voice translated into a classy baritone British accent, with murmuring going across the table as ambassadors spoke with their aides, and in the Citadel's case, the ambassadors of the various member nations speaking with one another.

" _We can accept this._ " Came the conclusions from the various Citadel Ambassadors in various slight variations of that message.

" _Epsilon sees no reason to object._ " Libra said, ceasing her fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke with that cold voice of hers. To think she used to be a manically psychotic woman-child in the twentieth century, only to blossom into this icy flower sitting before the nervous cetacean.

" _My people would be made substantially more comfortable if both of your governments would agree to establish embassies on the Citadel for ease of correspondence._ " The Ambassador for the Turian Hierarchy, some tall (even by Turian standards!) bloke named Varro Varius who had currently placed his hands in a pyramid formation that Clikki would never be able to replicate.

The enormous eyed Salarian Ambassador soon joined in with a breath-taking rapidity of words the instant he looked up from his datapad. " _Agreed, your arsenals are a cause for worry, the enigma shrouding your capabilities and intention, also problematic. Permanent embassies would be a gesture of good-will, would also suggest consulates on your capital worlds._ "

" _You would have us place consulates on our worlds, but have our embassies be on this space station of yours?_ " Libra said, a snowy eyebrow of hers quirking up as the girl leaned ever so slightly forward in her seat. Certainly enough to make Clikki's skin crawl.

" _Explaining the reasoning, the Citadel allows for quick contact with all of our member states and direct access to the Council; our highest diplomatic authority. Continuing elaboration, consulates on our political capitals would also be permitted, but would be there to speak to the individual governments, and not the supranational body of the Council._ " The massive Elcor diplomat monotoned. A translator that put the speaker's tone or intent at the start of every sentence or somebody polite enough to do just that themselves when they spoke? May as well have told Clikki Christmas had come early.

" _That I can deal with, we'll provide you the land needed as soon as possible._ " Clikki squeaked, lazily drifting back up to the surface of the tank to suck in a large volume of air through his blow hole, water spraying outwards as he breathed in and out several times. So far, nothing being proposed seemed too far out of line based on the plan set for the meeting by Clikki's superiors. That was good, and that made Clikki a happy dolphin even as he submerged.

" _We will accept this of course._ " Libra said as her arms moved from the table to fold across her chest. What was going on in her mind on the other hand, was an enigma. She tilted her head slightly to the left, but soon brought it right back up with a quick snapping motion with her head.

" _Pardon this one if it would be speaking out of turn in your culture, but this one has noticed that your science is lacking in the touch of the Enkindlers._ " The Hanar spoke up, it's self-echoing voice full of reverence and curiosity in equal measure, drawing the eyes of every human and cetacean in the room.

" _An Enkindler is what again?_ " One of Clikki's aides asked, her voice clicking as she spoke, idly doing a roll in the water as she shifted her attention from a glowing screen submersed in their tank to the other delegates.

" _The Kahje-Clan's term for the Protheans, from whom we've adapted much of our technology. Element Zero, the Mass Effect, the Relays, the Citadel? All Prothean. We've made our own touches and adaptations, but much of the big stuff? Theirs. Most species got started in space when we examined some of their ruins and reverse engineered it. On that note, we would like for you to share any Porthean or "Hyksos" data or relics you uncover for the benefit of the galaxy as a whole._ " The Volus Ambassador said, drawing Clikki's eyes to the deep voiced but positively diminuitive rotund being. The constant breathing from the Volus, Lor Hulguk, certainly didn't do much to disguise his respectful tone, even when speaking for the dead martian civilization that predated even the Prothean base.

" _Our ruins had almost nothing in terms of usable information. What the Allied-Soviets found was a badly damaged data-cache that at most regurgitated that there had been a base in the past, why they were there, and a bit on what they were. Most of what we have? Off-shoots of what we've thrown at each other or dug up in war. Plenty of fun stuff really!_ " Clikki said cheerfully, trying to make his position seem as strong as possible. His government couldn't afford to look weak here, not when it was, strategically speaking, deeply outmatched. It could hurt either party, maybe, just maybe win against Epsilon, but it would lose in the long run if it came to a contest of might. No, no, he wasn't going to let it come to that.

" _Neither of us use those mass-relay things either. Didn't seem smart to poke around with them when we couldn't tell where they went. As for your ancient Aliens, I have no objections._ " Clikki also said, to the approving nod of many of the Citadel ambassadors, Varius in particular seemed to appreciate the wisdom of this decision. Blindly activating relays lead to both the Rachni Wars and the Krogan Rebellions, so knowing that these humans wouldn't open the gates to some other spirits cursed menace from the ass end of the galaxy was a relief.

" _With bemused curiosity, Then why were your troops meddling with Relay 314?_ " The Elcor asked, shifting very, very slightly forward, daring to cast a look over to Libra. This whole meeting was unlikely to have occured without that incident, and all parties were grateful that it did not erupt into a wider war, so any questions relating to it were definitely ones that deserved answers.

" _The vessels were scanning for dormant mirage drone ships to destroy them before they could be called in for an ambush. A disguise as...audacious...as a mass relay would not be totally out of the question._ " Libra said, sighing under her breath as a face remained a mask of dispassion if not complete disinterest, her posture remaining fixed in a way that Clikki found unnerving. He was just so used to humans always fidgeting in little ways.

" _Speaking of your technology, going over the data you've sent us, we have cause to be concerned about this "Tiberium" of yours. You use it on a massive scale and I haven't seen anything with a higher capacity for environmental devastation in my time. I would ask that you offer us some samples, or at least information on it for study._ " Viara said, though just about as soon as the words came out of her mouth she got a resounding "No" from both Libra and Clikki. A frown formed on her face as she got an answer she was expecting, but hoping not to hear.

" _You can have the information, sure, but we're not about to surrender that asset to you._ " Clikki said emphatically, his squeaking and chirping growing stronger as he spoke. Tiberium offered so many advantages that handing any over was deemed to be out of the question under no uncertain terms by the Politburo and he couldn't imagine that the Duma of Epsilon would be any more generous. Then came the moment for Libra to raise a hand. A bit of a squeak came from the Dolphin, a short and rapid backstroke of the tail pushed it backwards through the water and away from her.

" _In recompense for those who have died in your attack on our assets, we would wish to advance our desires for your technology. We are most interested in your "mass effect" technology and would ask for schematics, information, and examples of your faster than light communications and travel technology, as well as your hyper-dense materials. We will in turn, decline to ask for monetary reparations. Is this a fair trade to you?_ " She said, pushing her head very slowly forward until it rested on the finger bridge she had set up with her now propped up arms.

" _My people could abide by this, agreed. We will ship what you need as soon as possible._ " Varro said, pleasantly surprised by the lack of demand for financial compensation. Though to Clikki, it may just have been that the crew were all vat-grown clones; and thus didn't have any family to have reparations paid to.

Damn, now Clikki was going to have to find some leverage to get some of that tech immediately rather than wait for ASBCIN or the market to obtain it, the dolphin thought as he snapped his jaws in frustration. "We of course, are going to ask for the same thing, but we'll offer you something back. Our non-Tiberium based refinement and manufacturing tech should do it for you, no?" He offered, swimming right up to the edge of the tank and peering through it's transparent walls, opening up his jaw in a facsimile of a smile to make himself seem as friendly as possible.

Ignoring Libra's glaring at him, he soon got the answer he wanted. "That's more than reasonable, of course we'll agree." The Asari said for them, and with that, Clikki was definitely relieved. There wasn't too much the Politburo was willing to trade, and so long as the Citadel could be kept friendly, the risks of offering them that seemed to be more than worth it. Hell Clikki was so pleased that if the ceiling were high enough to allow for it he would have probably jumped out and did a flip for them!

" _Now, my clan has drafted up these economic trade treaties that I feel we should all discuss immediately._ " The Volus said with relish as he brought out a datapad full of trade pacts he hoped to turn into proper agreements. Oh damn, this was going to take a while.

* * *

**Human similarities to Quarians and Asari spark fascination**

"In a stunning case of convergent evolution, it has been discovered that one of the new species encountered at Relay 314 has a remarkable degree of morphological similarities to the Quarians and the Asari. Like female Quarians and Asari (along with a handful of other species), female humans possess receptacles of fat on their chest with which they can produce a nutritious liquid with which to feed young from modified sweat glands referred to as "Milk" in one of the more common human languages. Like Quarians and a number of less well known species, Humans possess hair primarily on their heads, though concentrations of it can be found elsewhere on the body. Indeed, morphological similarities are to the point that interspecies attraction is a relatively easy hurdle to cross. Those who expect to have half-human babies are likely to be disappointed; as that's simply not how biology works. Other Earth native sapients, such as Parrots, Cetaceans, and Cephalopods, are interesting to the scientific community due to the cultural dynamics questions they raise, but have attracted rather less interest from the Galaxy's interspecies romance connoisseurs, though some have expressed interest in Cephalopods for the same reason some are drawn to the Hanar."

**Panic as word of the Scrin spread!**

"Contact with the Earth native species encountered at Relay 314 has spread disturbing news of a previously unknown polity referred to in Earth-native texts as the "Scrin Infestation", so referred to due to a common belief that the Scrin are more akin to a virus than a standard civilization. Signs of Scrin presence include the rapid spread of a toxic, mutagenic, and radioactive self-replicating and assimilative substance known as "Tiberium" with remarkable adaptational capabilities that even when contained; has rendered vast stretches of many Earth-Native controlled planets uninhabitable, which upon reaching a terminal stage where a massive liquid Tiberium explosion ignites that signals a harvest fleet to arrive and attempt to purge any remaining life."

** Treaties reached with Forgotten Confederacy **

"As the Earth-native factions are brought into the wider galactic community, the Forgotten Mutant Confederacy has made a number of agreements with Citadel Space to recognize it as a sovereign state in it's own right as well as to decide its place in the galactic community. As Tiberium mutants can live in places where carbon based life cannot survive, it was deemed reasonable to allow mutants to purchase property in tiberium infested areas. The Confederacy considers itself the protector of all mutants, regardless of species, and strenuously argued to reach an accord similar to what it had reached with most other earth-native states where it would be allowed to send representatives to defend mutants in courts of law, as well as establishing space for discussing relations between mutated and carbon based life."

** Numerous earth-native corporations settle outside of earth-native dominated space **

"A large number of earth-native corporations that had settled in a number of nations of varying size separate from the Confederacy, the Alliance, and the Dominion have started to expand their business into C-Space and the Terminus systems, looking to expand their business opportunities. Generally unwelcome in the Socialist Alliance and minor Socialist human states aligned with the Alliance and the left-leaning and traditionally suspicious of corporate influence Confederacy and with the Dominion preferring its own corporations; these companies have proved incredibly eager to expand farther than they ever have before; at a faster rate than their prior colonization efforts have gone too. Some smaller states have also applied to enter C-space, and others have begun settling into the Terminus systems or in uncharted space."

** Psychic powers are real! (Charlatans still wrong!) **

"With contact with the Earth-Native powers has come confirmation that Psychic powers do indeed exist. However, anyone who told you that they had them and that it totally wasn't biotics until encounters with Earth-Native species was probably still lying to you. However, a handful of some of the more esoteric stunts or tricks utilized in the galaxy are being re-evaluated, as it seems that a great degree of will power and focus can create some psychic effects even without the aid of implants, conscious training, or genetic manipulation. First discovered among humans by the human dictator Yuri while under the employ of Stalin; Psychic abilities have formed the bedrock of the Epsilon dominion, while its rivals have struggled to keep up. However, mention that the Scrin also displayed Psychic ability and that other Earth-native sapients can utilize psychic effects have shown that this is not just a human thing. Could Psychics appear in C-Space soon?"

* * *

Codex entries:

Polities: Unitary Epsilon Dominion;

Considered the foremost human power, the Epsilon Dominion has the honor of holding Earth and has held it since the late twentieth century, and later came to hold the entire Solar system by the 2050s. Once an elite research division within the Soviet Union, Yuri has long since broken ties with his former government. Once thought defeated in his bid for hegemony for humanity by the Allies and Soviets, Yuri returned and managed to attain military victory, resulting in the forced withdrawal of both of his former enemies to the planet Mars.

Several further wars established Epsilon as the sovereign of the Earth, and with the withdrawal of the Allied-Soviets, of the Solar System as a whole. While Epsilon is seen in a negative light by many, it has continued to remain a stable government for centuries and citizens report a high rate of happiness, and it's policies are highly egalitarian and immigrant friendly. However, Epsilon's massive military has also been the cause of concern and the inspiration innumerable technothrillers of dubious quality. Due to a heavy usage of cloning and vat grown creations it is difficult to truly ascertain Epsilon's population.

Epsilon has multiple capitals. It's religious capital is placed in Sarajevo, it's political capital of Cluj-Napoca is based in Transylvania, it's official financial capital is placed in Moscow, and it's official cultural capital is placed in Constantinople. All four are considered sites of great human cultural heritage, and Epsilon takes much pride in "watching over humanity's history", to the chagrin of the Allied-Soviets. Both the Allied-Soviets and Epsilon share the Lingua Francas of Russian and English.

The Epsilon Dominion does not fully count any polity as a true ally, though it has sought to exert influence over the Terminus systems ever since first contact. While the council generally remains divided on which human polity to favor, with the Turians perhaps being the most pro-Epsilon with the Asari being the most vehemently anti-Dominion, it is the general opinion of geopolitical analysts that Epsilon is the most dangerous human polity and while it may not win in a war against the Council and the Allied-Soviets in tandem; it would make the price of any such victory too much to stomach.

Epsilon's government is considered to be a technocracy with oligarchic and religious bents. Those in power wield a great deal of it, but there is a tremendous deal of pressure from above to ensure their continuing competence lest they be faced with summary dismissal and shame for failing the expectations of Yuri. Economically, it is a Corporatist system, with the favorites of Epsilon's inner circle working to curry favor for their massive enterprises by proving themselves better than their rivals. It remains a matter of debate as to how free and fair the government of the Dominion is, though proponents of secular government take issue to the existence of an official and heavily promoted state religion. The most important factions within Epsilon can be separated into Headquarters, Psicorps, Chaos Faction, and Scorpion Cell; derived from prexisting divisions in Epsilon's command structure.

Polities: Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations;

A merger of the once opposed blocs of the World Socialist Alliance and the Alliance of Democratic Nations, the Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist nations has long forgotten the former rivalry of it's constituent members, instead directing their animosity towards the Epsilon Dominion as part of a grudge that spans centuries. Priding itself as the combination of the best traits of the Allies and the Soviets, the Allied-Soviets have taken quite well to being exiles from their home.

Once based off of Mars; the fourth world in humanity's native solar system, the Allied-Soviets are now based on the world of Midgard, which they have extensively settled over the course of three hundred years as the heart of their network of colonies. It is here where the federal government of the Allied-Soviets rests, where cases requiring the attentions of the highest courts are overseen, where the executive branch of the government presides, and where the legislature gathers to vote, in the All-Union Central Executive Parliament, consistent of the Parliament of States representing the individual states within the Alliance, and the Parliament of People's Deputies who represent the whole of the Alliance while the people themselves can immediately voice concerns over the extranet, and if a sufficiently large number of people vote, the people can override representatives.

A "Matryoshka" (named after a form of nesting doll) system of direct and participatory parliaments extends throughout every level of government, encouraging people to be highly involved with their government. In terms of economy, certain industries deemed of critical importance are managed by the federal government itself, while others are left to the local parliaments (often also called "soviets"), and thanks to the avenues opened up by their production technology, most live in what is often called "post-scarcity light", where the majority of light industry products are easily handled by local cooperatives at essentially no cost worth mentioning, with the wider government mostly works to ensure that standards are enforced to ensure compatibility.

The Allied-Soviet government typically has something of a cavalier attitude to politics and works to promote it's values of freedom, socialism, equality, and justice across the galaxy. Oligarchies and Autocracies are seen with distaste at best, and outright loathing at worst on the simple principle that they are not accountable to the people. In spite of this, the Allied-Soviets have taken care to establish friendly relations with the Citadel, believing the Council to be a natural ally against the corporatist Epsilon Dominion and the Terminus systems, though there sometimes strained relations due to differences of economic policy.

Being the smaller human polity by a good margin, the Allied-Soviets have taken care to ensure that they never seem too weak to defend themselves, and as such have invested in a massive and powerful military as well as an enormous amount of resources into the pursuit of more advanced technology and developed infrastructure. The primary languages of the Allied-Soviets are English and Russian, though other languages are also spoken within it.

Polities: Forgotten Mutant Confederacy;

The Forgotten are a loose confederation of Tiberium afflicted humans formed in the early twenty first century (by human reckoning) who have chosen to exile themselves out of a belief that proper society has forgotten them or that society rejects them. Existing between Epsilon and the Allied-Soviets has taught the Forgotten that their status as an independent policy is dependent on their ability to play off larger powers and ensure that they possess enough strength of their own to make forceful assimilation a painful prospect.

While certainly lacking in infrastructure and technology compared to the "big two", the Forgotten Confederacy is tenacious and resourceful and is a master of guerrilla tactics as well as scavenging and looting. In addition, the Forgotten are an extremely hardy people and typically far exceed the standard human physically speaking. This has resulted in them being quite popular as mercenaries or allies in both the historical conflicts of the Allied-Soviets and Epsilon and later on as they integrated in galactic society.

While the official line of the Forgotten Confederacy's leaders is that they wish peace, a number of Forgotten believe that the time has come for the Forgotten to themselves hold a great and powerful empire. These terrorist groups ironically often find common cause with supremacist groups of other nations as well as various warbands and petty nations found throughout the Terminus systems. Ever since the Forgotten's introduction to galactic society they have been a cause for much grief.

As per multilateral agreements, the Forgotten Confederacy is regarded as it's own independent nation with it's own colonies and is frequently granted reserves on other worlds, though typically in Tiberium contaminated areas. The Forgotten have developed their own private language, but nearly all are multi-lingual. The Confederacy is regarded as something of a curiosity in politics and has drawn sympathy from the Quarian fleets and Krogan.

Synthetics: NEXUS;

NEXUS is the designation for a Human built rogue A.I that began an Organic-Synthetic war in the second half of the second human interplanetary war after assessing that the only way to resolve the conflict was to take control of humanity itself. Defeated by an alliance of the human polities, NEXUS withdrew itself and it's remaining forces into the void of space with primitive Chrono-jumpers and Heisenberg drives and has not been seen since.

Whereas the Morning War left the Quarians with a deep seated fear and hatred for Synthetics, the "Robot Storm", has not had the same effect on humanity. The typical opinion is that NEXUS was simply defective and since their later efforts into computer science have not lead to a repeat of the Robot Storm, they feel vindicated by their decision. Nevertheless, NEXUS has lead to generally more cautious ventures into the field of Computer Science in it's wake.

Following the revelation of it's existence, the Citadel has been on a look out for traces of NEXUS, however it's ability to travel extensively beyond the Relay network and the sheer scale of the Galaxy means that it is possible that no encounters with NEXUS will be recorded for thousands of years to come. It is also possible that in the intervening years, the A.I and it's creations have either had a redress of priorities or finally met their doom.

Nevertheless, it is still considered unwise to be completely unprepared for a possible return of the rogue synthetics and it is believed that there are contingency plans in place to deal with it should it make itself apparent once again. Any further information that does not date back to the second interplanetary war is however, almost entirely speculative, making discussions on the present of the A.I extremely difficult.

Species: Scrin;

An enigmatic species known only for it's devastating invasion of the Solar system in the third interplanetary war, the Scrin have not appeared since and speculation on their full capabilities and motivations continues largely unabated. What is known is their lack of effort in attempting to communicate with the Solar System's polities, their mastery of psionics, directed energy weapons, and Tiberium; as well as their complete lack of Eezo based technology.

What is also known is their role in the destruction of the Pre-Prothean Martian Civilization known as the Hyksos, who constructed the Tacitus as a manual on how to battle against the Scrin that sought their extinction as well as the Tiberium they spread. Finally, efforts at studying the Scrin focus heavily on trying to understand the pair of enormous towers they left in the Solar System in the River Tiber and on Olympus Mons. Due to being nestled deep within the least inhabitable portions of Earth and Mars, studying them is intensely difficult. Furthermore, the Towers have proven to be invulnerable to all effects.

Dating of the Tacituses and Hyksos relics confirms that the Scrin are at the very least, millions of years old as a recognizable entity. This has lead to lead many to speculate that the force that caused so much devastation to the Earth was not in fact, a military invasion force, as a truly serious strike force most likely would have the technological capacity to trivially eradicate humanity. That the earthborn nations were nearly brought to their knees by this force in any case is considered a cause for disquiet.

Due to their psychic abilities, the consensus among those interested in the subject is that the Scrin utilize a hive mind rather than any conventional form of language. Somewhat akin to, but not precisely the Rachni. Like the Rachni, the Scrin showed arthropodal morphological traits, though it is considered tremendously difficult to tell what is truly Scrin and what is merely machine.

* * *

Author's notes: You thought I was going to go the cliche'd route of having a First contact war at all, didn't you?


	3. Frostburn

_"Piracy is undoutably the greatest concern of our time, tied with terrorism."_

\- Tevos

" _To safeguard the holdings of the dominion is to safeguard the progress of humanity._ "

\- Yuri.

* * *

_Planet Dracul, 3rd of June, 2367, thirty years post contact._

Anton Cioban examined the information presented to him by the terminal. All readings so far indicated normalcy. Given the nature of the work at the Giorgi biological research plant, that was good. Headquarters got testy when resource grants were wasted upon failure and mediocrity with no further development apparent down the pipeline, and Anton had no intention of failing to live up to expectations.

He looked to one of his colleagues, a big bearded fellow who seemed almost too large for his lab gear, and then spoke up. "Grigor, could you test the thought inhibitor?" Anton asked, giving the larger man a datapad with some stored files.

" _Yes of course. Is it acting up?_ " He asked as he shifted his gaze from his colleague to the datapad.

" _Unfortunately._ " Anton sighed, briefly placing a hand on the right side of his face and shaking his head as an expression of exasperation.

" _It's still growing, give it time, and I'm sure it will calm down._ " Grigor said, slapping Anton on the lowermost part of his left shoulder and causing him to jolt forward a step or two while he felt the sting of a thousand bees ride up his back.

Control your god damn arm. Anton cursed beneath his breath as he checked the instrumentation again before looking at the feeds into the chamber where they were growing their newest project. An attempt at creating a new sapient species for combat, one that would help cement Epsilon's position in the universe.

Covered in a carapace of varying shades of grey, lighter on the bottom and darker on the top, the creature had an angular; stealth bomber like appearance which were only enhanced by it's vast set of wings. A hooked beak was flanked by a pair of lower mandibles; meant to provide extreme bite strength, and it's compound eyes were aligned in a long strip across it's armoured head. Including it's wings, it had eight limbs, all slender but possessed of powerful musculature, densified and enhanced by careful application of Tiberium, two large limbs ended in scythe like grabbing appendages while two smaller manipulator arms had clawed hands. A long, skeletal tail dragged out from behind, ending in a wicked scythed spike.

About the mass of a fair sized dinosaur at ten tons with a wingspan longer than most whales were from head to tail were from head to tail, the creature seemed to regard the cameras with clear distaste. A sense of the thing staring right at him through the cameras was unshakeable, it's baleful gaze and dreadful clicking seeming to intensify.

He could scarcely imagine what it went through in the testing. Constant recalibrations of infusions, psychic neuralization, forcible biotic implantations, constant updates for it's psychic implants. Well, now it was time for new implants. He would need a long night with his wife and daughter to forget what he was about to do, and he shut his eyes as the process began.

As the process began through the walls of the facility and as the hours rolled by, he could hear it's anguish. A cry quite unlike anything he had ever heard, an ululating, low warbling shriek of pain, one that only faded when it was subdued, and one that picked right back up as it began to awake to post-surgical soreness. And sometimes, he could swear he heard it calling his name.

With the hours past, he prepared to head home, Catalina and Anastasia were waiting for him. He had plans to drown his angst with a healthy supply of alcohol and a warm bed. As he walked his way to the entrance of the facility, he saw a figure in black and green armor of a make that he couldn't identify, the emblem of a black spiked skull flanked by two lightning bolts while a black skeletal hand reached for it; all laid into a green octagon, a helm that seemed ever so vaguely reminiscent of a blank face ribbed with vents on the cheek area capped with a stahlhelm, with a leering corpse green T-visor staring out at the world. On the shoulders stood green hexagons with crossed black daggers at their center.

A brief moment passed as he stared at the figure. He didn't recognize the armor, or any of the symbology. What he did know, was that it was not authorized, and he was certainly not able to take it on in combat. It rippled with a cloaking device and disappeared, leaving Anton scrambling to activate the alarm with a mental command. But it seemed the wraithlike figure was faster with pushing a button.

Before the thought could be completed, his world was filled with smoke, fire, and noise. A series of thundrous blasts ripped through the facility, and when he finally regained control of his senses he found that his view had dropped several feet and tilted sideways, leaving him to stare up at the figure who had reappeared, almost as if to taunt him. He tried to push himself up, but the wraith stepped over him and walked out of sight just before a flood of mutants and Terminus raiders appeared.

The emblems on the mutants he finally recognized, Crystal's Fury...the howling aliens they brought in, blood pack.

A number of initiates filed in, bringing focusing carbines to send forth their pyrokinetic bursts towards the intruders, three of the forgotten went down; burnt to cinders, screaming for a brief moment, making a few motions of running before dropping to the ground as charred corpses that reeked of a vaguely pork-like smell.

In an earlier age the Krogan taking point would have used a light machine gun firing mass accelerator rounds. In this modern age however, he used a particle casting version of the same. Spectacular streaks of energy licked out as heat resistant vorcha helped him take aim, some dying, some initiates already falling to the fire, but the initiates soon learned to bow to the Krogan as one was sliced in half; his upper torso going flying while his legs flopped to the ground steaming, another's head burst as soon as his shields and armor failed, a body with nothing but a charred stump slumping over deployable low cover panels, a third had holes torn through her that definitely signaled the end of her life.

The Krogan sniffed the air before looking down at Anton, who was currently doing his very best to play dead.

" _This Pyjak's still breathing._ " The Krogan snarled as he kicked the scientist in the side while the forgotten terrorists gathered around, assuming positions to ensure that all was clear before advancing.

" _He's a scientist, take him, we need him to release the creature. I don't want him hurt anymore than he has to be or I swear I am docking your pay._ " One of the hooded mutants hissed at the Krogan who snorted.

" _Fine by me._ " The Krogan snorted as he had one of the Vorcha heft up the terrified scientist while accompanying Varren; some showing clear signs of Tiberium alteration, soon followed up to their masters, snarling at the Tiberium fiends the Mutants had brought along for much the same purpose.

" _Get your asses in gear, we've got payday waiting for us!_ " The Krogan warlord shouted, and finally, now in some control of his senses, Anton was able to see some tiberium growth on the Krogan, which would explain his greater size and the ease with which he held that heavy machine gun equivalent proton gun. So much for the Tiberium embargo, he thought as more mercenaries and terrorists flowed into the building like ants invading a termite nest.

* * *

Warlord Virog liked his new gun. Particle casters were still something of a rarity, expensive too, but he bet his hide that they'd become the standard soon enough, even as Mass Accelerator rifles continued to advance and new exciting weapons flooded the market. Anything that could let him mow down enemies better made him a very happy Krogan to say the least.

He and a bunch of other mercs were being paid good money to storm this facility. Not just money, he reminded himself, but Tiberium too. Tib fetched excellent prices, and was incredibly useful even if you didn't sell it anyway.

He was brought out of his musings by a storm of railgun fire from the gatling weapon of a harpoon, forcing him to take cover as the genetically altered armoured freak of a cyborg stood tall, gargling angrily as more jump jet using initiates quickly blasted up onto high vantage points while more cover panels unfurled.

Rage gas grenades were thrown into the area, he quickly barked an order to pull back. "Get out of there, Biotics I need you to push that crap back!" He shouted through his helmet as he took any cover he could from the withering barrage of rounds from the Harpoon's roaring weapon.

He needed only see one of the Crystal's Fury terrorists start firing into his own units to know that an adept level telepath had also entered the fray. One of the Biotics unfortunately he scowled as he popped up long enough to make some shots at the Epsilon guards, ducking right back down when the Harpoon turned the sweep of it's gatling cannon right at him.

Damn, he had to respect firepower like that. Not respecting that kind of firepower would get him killed, and while he was certainly no bedwetting Pyjak, he rather liked living.

He threw a fusion grenade bought from the allied-soviets, hurling the miniature nuclear device over his head and throwing himself to the ground when the whump of the shockwave and roar of the blast cut through the already roaring noise of the room, he looked up and the Harpoon was gone and the Adept was busy collecting his senses, just long enough for the Krogan to chop him down with his heavy particle caster, he heard a scream and the squelch of flesh being crushed into a pulp even as it was flung about in all directions and charred beyond recognition, hissing all the while.

" _Did our friend turn off their defense turrets?_ " He asked over the commlinks as he advanced through the now cleared room, taking a right just as the very thorough map he had acquired from his employers directed him to.

" _Yes Warlord. What do you plan on bringing in? Gunships?_ " Came in the reply as the krogan grinned, evil thoughts rapidly forming in his mind.

" _You think too small. I want a drop of tank company Wrecker one klick from my position due north by north east, and yes, bring in the gunships._ " He grinned viciously as the forgotten kicked in another door, letting out a spray of weapons fire into the room to suppress the telekinetic adept they almost immediately ran into.

He instinctively threw himself to the side, hearing barriers collapse and bodily tissue getting obliterated as a series of forgotten were torn apart by a hellstorm of metal shards hurled by the adept while the distinctive "deewp" sound of initiates letting loose pyrokinetic bursts began to fill his ears.

" _Flank their positions damn it or I will eat your fucking heads off._ " He shouted at the Vorcha under his command as he threw in some grenades to get the defenders to recoil at least somewhat, if only for a moment. His instincts buzzed and he dashed as far away from the door as possible, leaving the wide open door behind him as a miniature sun's worth of glowing green starflare plasma exploded and incinerated the Vorcha, Humans, Mechs, and assorted terrorists, pirates, and mercs who were just standing there moments ago.

" _Damn, they've got a night terror._ " He grumbled, gritting his teeth as the facility shook with heavy mass accelerator fire.

" _Aww yeah, now that's what I'm talking about._ " He whooped as a trio of heavy rounds slammed into the building, if he read the plans right, they might even be able to provide some indoors support in some places. That made him giddy, ah the destruction they'd wreak.

The launch of another plasma blast quickly snapped him out of his musings and informed him of the need to find a better spot to push his advance through.

" _Where's those flankers I asked for?_ " He snarled into his commlinks as heavy footsteps informed him that the creature with it's support had emerged to start a sweep maneuver; it's gatling cannon revving up and letting loose the storm, his ears once again being assaulted in the moments before his helmets' compensators kicked in.

" _I need reinforcements, now you lazy whoresons!_ " He roared into the comms as his cover rapidly disintegrated under the fire of the nightmare, but even through all the noise of battle he was able to tell when a plasma cannon was being charged.

And as if to answer his summons, a tank smashed straight through the wall, dozens of tons of steel and fury dragged it's turret as the initiates fell back in good order, feeling the stinging attentions of hastily added particle casters mounted on the sleek, angular vehicle while the nightmare bellowed his challenge.

He had heard stories of the prowess of nightmares, but he never quite imagined that a Turian made MX-731 Mawblade tank would be reeling from a direct hit from a starflare cannon, nor that the thing would actually start walking towards the vehicle, the antares cannon on it's back slowly raising itself into position as it gurgled incomprehensibly beneath it's thick suit of armor. After doing a brief spin from a glancing shot to the shoulder by the main gun of the tank that caused quite the score into the pauldron as it slid off, the thing decided to charge in, enormous pincers on it's suit seeming all too noticeable now.

Crystal's Fury terrorists frantically scampered back, firing away with their mass accelerator rifles; having had difficulty acquiring particle casters or directed energy weapons of which their fire was punctuated with but a smattering of such weapons. Some grenade launchers made themselves known on the hide of the nightmare, but the initiates guarding them accounted well for themselves as the Telekine adepts crushed more than a few forgotten into pulp with but a squeezing action of their minds. Even more ground was lost to them when the harpoons came roaring in with gatling weapons, forcing them into cover while Biotics tried to bring up shields to slow down the counter-offensive from Epsilon.

The results of the clash between monster and machine were obscured to him as a dream weaver's clicking behind him made him acutely aware as to it's presence. Like organic terror drones, the creatures scuttled forward to him, clicking and buzzing as they oozed rage gas out of their pores. Yet more initiates followed behind them, lead by a trio of electrokine adepts whose streaking arcs of Thor's fury zapped him to the ground, twitching as stars danced behind his eyes while the dream-weavers rushed forward to draw fire from those members of his group that survived.

Most would have probably been killed outright by the lightning he received, but he was a old, strong Krogan who had willingly infused himself with Tiberium, his armorsuit had a good combination of insulatives and conductors in the right place in the anticipation of having to face tesla weaponry, and he had placed on some magnetic shield projectors to bolster his defense. As Varrens and Fiends sought to jump on and claw at the five meter night terror as it started tearing into the tank, he picked himself up, not even flinching as several vorcha and mutants were burned to ash by the adepts and initiates. He didn't even blink as a Krogan was torn apart by the dream-weavers.

No fear was displayed when he dived for a missile launcher dropped by one of the dead vorcha, hoisted it up, and loaded a fresh warhead. Not even when the tank that had driven into the wide open hallway was finally crushed by the victorious night terror did he show any hint of being scared. Rather, he pulled the trigger and let loose a warhead, reveling as it exploded among the adepts with a fusion warhead and cleared a large path through it's scouring nuclear flames. Oh he had to duck back under cover alright, but now the way was clear for him to trudge on by while the Crystal's Fury terrorists rallied with renewed support from the Blood Pack and fresh troops coming in from the entrances.

He turned around to let loose with his particle beam caster, laughing raucuously as enemies were mowed down by his beloved gun. Violence and noise swirled around him, snipers sought to add their instrument to the cacophany just as heavy weapons fire was traded. Bodies hit the floor, filled with holes, charred, torn apart, flensed, crushed, or otherwise mutilated in a supremely intense fire-fight. A harpoon went down, consumed by a biotic warp that violently ripped the specially crafted supersoldier to pieces and finally silencing it's lethal gatling gun. A Krogan was struck by a virus round from a sniper, and gagged before exploding into toxic green gas.

Initiates struck by shotgun fire from charging mutants went down with bloody, pulpy holes in their chest after repeated fire, only for the mutants to burn from unfolding antares thermal wave turrets disconnected from the external defense grid, the lucky ones flash frying into cinders and the unlucky ones screaming as they flailed and cooked in the heat of fires leaping across their body. Varren and Fiends that had sought to pull down the night-terror found themselves faced with dream-weavers as the armored colossus swept it's fire across the room, the defeated hulk of the tank lying in smoking ruin while antares blasts, plasma spheres, and gatling guns made their presences unmissable.

Soldiers turned upon each other, guided by the will of Telepaths, though to Virog's annoyance the Telepaths Epsilon had were just more numerous and flat out better, forcing him to devote snipers to taking them down whenever they made their presences known. But numbers were on Virog's side. By the time grotesquely mutated and hugely muscular brutes and archers started to make themselves known, the Epsilon guard forces were losing. The night-terror had gone down, focused down by anti-tank fire, biotics, and psychics until it finally tumbled down and ceased to breathe due to multiple holes ripped through it's body and the fire of two more of Virog's tanks smashing into the hallway.

The archers, while certainly unusual due to their reliance on seemingly outdated technology, and certainly responsible for their fair share of havoc with their variable warhead superheated bolts that incinerated many an asset, had come too little, too late to change the tide and went down in time. The brutes, while fierce, were not capable of averting defeat for the security forces. And with the commander at the helm of their EVA system having already been dealt with by their wraith-like friend, the coordination of the security forces slowly began to disintegrate.

Rushing forward and bellowing his battle cry, Virog had switched to a massive shotgun, a six gauge by human reckoning, but entirely manageable for the mutant krogan. And when it spoke, it spoke with the kind of voice that let him turn men into meaty chunks and bits of armor and uniform, and the kind that was most assuredly welcome for it's ability to give pause to even brutes.

When he came face to face with a brute, he was quick to get out his battlehammer, deeming the action too close for the shotgun. The huge, hulking mass of muscle made the first step, roaring as it swung a fist at him, making him try to do his best to roll with the hit, stumbling to the left to get some range to get a good swing going with his weapon. The brute staggered, stumbled, but brought his fists down for a double hammer fist that made his shields flare with effort.

A kick to the face similarly made Virog stumble backwards, reeling from the blow, but he brought his hammer down again, smashing the brute back and setting the grey skinned beast up for a leftward blow to the head, more than enough to daze and dizzy it as he finally got enough space to bring out his shotgun and unload an automatic clip into the beast. Though the genetically engineered monster stood for a while due to shields and sheer toughness, soon it went down in bloody pieces and Virog could rejoin the rest of the fight.

After five more minutes of intense struggle, the fighting finally stopped. No more forces loyal to Yuri were throwing themselves at them, though he respected their ability to make him pay for every millimeter of advance in blood. He would have loved to remove his helmet to take in a whiff of that blood filled air, but he knew the risks of going barefaced in an arena that had just seen the kind of chemical warfare filled contest they had.

" _Get some explosives on that door, I want it breached yesterday!_ " He shouted, looking through his HUD to see who was still left. Casualty rates were high, but nothing he wasn't expecting. Good, those who made it out of this would be stronger for what they've just gone through.

" _Where's the scientist? Is he still breathing?_ " Virog snarled as he stepped out of the way of the krogan packing the detonation charges.

" _Yes Warlord, we've kept him out of the firefight._ " One of the Vorcha snarled, almost barking at the Krogan through the comms Feh, he'd need a clubbing on the head for that tone, Virog thought as he made a mental note.

" _Our catch isn't much farther away according to this map, just one more hall way that our friend should have cleared for us._ " Virog said, bringing up the map on his omnitool so that everyone could see how close they were to their objective, relishing in the excitement his soldiers were displaying.

Some echoes of combat continued to reach his ears, probably other groups of soldiers drawing away the guards he thought. His troops, he thought with pride. The other merc companies hired decided to take the longer, safer routes, but it seemed to him that their gamble hadn't paid off. The roar and snap of breaching charges assaulted his senses once again, but with the hole in the door now available, he was able to just walk through and take a short path through the hallway that followed.

A number of guards were seen, thoroughly dead via exotic weapons fire, leaving their corpses to decorate the room with all manners of bits and pieces of them missing. Almost certainly their wraithlike friend's doing.

The final door was already opened, and before them stood the chamber where the fruit of project Biomagus' labor was observed and administered from. The armoured black and green figure of the mysterious wraith awaited them, giving a subtle nod to the scientist and the console with which he had conducted many an operation on the bizarre creature seen on the view screens. So many lights, panels, screens, projectors and interfaces, all displaying data that Virog honestly wasn't interested in. All he cared about was the creature, and the bonus he'd get for being the first one to obtain it.

" _Now, either you can do this for us and I let you go, or I'm going to have to have one of the telepaths rip the information from you, and I start remembering how useful a pet scientist can be._ "

" _You can't expect me t-to turn my back on Yuri! If I were to do this, I would be a dead man anyway!_ " Anton protested, drawing a scoff from the krogan warlord before he motioned in over one of the surviving telepaths.

" _How little you must value your family. To deprive them of you because of your belief in the cause._ " The wraith finally spoke in a professional, chilling voice as it flipped through his personnel data files, that spine tingling voice modulated through his helmet as the telepath started tearing into his mind, picking his brain to find what they needed.

" _But what you forget, is that if you do not devote yourself to the right cause, the cause will show it's lack of devotion to you._ " The Wraith said as the Telepath, upon receiving what it needed to know, the Vorcha forced his hand onto the biometric scanner and implemented the command lines needed to start releasing the creature, who almost immediately exalted in seeing the doors of it's cage opening with a series of ululating clicks synchronized with the most unearthly roar imaginable as it stampeded out of the facility.

" _All troops, pull out to the ships and get ready to collect the package. We've got what we came for._ " Virog ordered as the wraith regarded Anton closely.

" _Let us see what your creation thinks of you, shall we?_ "

" _Hey, I want him working for me, you hear?_ " Virog said, glowering at the Wraith.

" _Epsilon has what it takes to preserve his brain. The rest of him is not necessary._ " He responded, prompting an evil grin to form beneath Virog's helmet as he produced one of the brain preservation kits, a jar filled with special solution and numerous tools for the extraction of the cerebrum, a grin that widened when Anton's moan of terror was heard. Soon, they had pushed the man out into the fields outside the facility, where the creature had emerged into the open, it's terrifying frame snarling and baying when it's ears caught wind of the name of the one it came to hate.

With a few tremendous steps, the six and a half meter tall creature had closed the distance to cioban and made him very aware of how big it's jaws were. It's hot breath lashed at him and prompted all those who felt it to step well back away from the monstrous winged abomination as it leered directly at Cioban.

" _You...are...Cioban._ " It said in a voice like the rumble of a volcano, it's mandibles clicking onto it's lower jaw as it came within mere centimeters from just biting him in half where he stood.

A terrified squeak was all Anton could answer with. What went through his mind besides all consuming terror, was how it learned how to speak.

" _You caused me...pain...suffering. But I heard your words...your noisey electric buzzing and sound...and I learned...I learned more than what you wished. And I learned...to hate you._ " It said, finishing it's last sentence with as much menace as possible as it reared it's head back, seemingly ready to deliver the killing blow.

" _We'll give him to you, just save the head will you?_ " Virog asked of it, not even flinching from the massively larger organism.

" _We ask that you join us, mighty behemoth! Help us smite the foes of the forgotten, so that our name will be remembered!_ " The mutant in the most ostentatious armor around said, throwing his hands apart and shouting at the monstrous thing.

" _Pah, would you work with those Wimps? Why not join us, we've got real firepower and a place for something like you._ " Virog countered, sensing an opportunity in the engineered monster.

" _We had a deal Krogan, the beast is ours!_ " The Forgotten shouted indignantly.

" _You can have anything that we leave behind, but this one's got promise._ " He said, stepping forward to edge himself closer to the monster.

" _I am...no one's...but I will be willing to hear an...offer._ " It said, it's words somewhat halting as it was still new to vocalizing them through it's throat.

" _You hate Cioban. I can offer you the information to make him hurt more than if you just kill him._  " The Wraith interjected, drawing the attentions of all three other speakers, each of them swiveling their heads towards the figure bearing the mark of the black hand.

It brought out a projection, a map with their current location highlighted, and another location not too far away similarly marked. A marking that made Anton shiver.

" _His family and friends._ " The wraith offered as the engineered monster clicked it's mandibles as it brought it's head close to the wraith. The being studied the image closely, mentally plotting a course through skills implanted into it's brain. Yes, this would do for the creature, Virog could tell, he had a knack for telling when others were plotting. A quick lunge of it's head was enough to bring it's jaws to a position to snap Anton in half.

Virog didn't flinch like many of the mutants did, he actually smiled as the thing scooped up his legs and snapped it's beaked jaw shut, the crunch of bones shearing and wet squelch of flesh giving way being drowned out by screams of pain and the sound of the two halves of it's chitinous head slamming together before it took to the air with a jump and powerful beats of it's wings, letting him bleed out with full knowledge of what was to come, first it would level the homes of any friends he had made, then it would deal with his family.

* * *

_Minutes later, Cioban household_

Catalina was resting peacefully in bed. Dad worked late most of the time, so the seven year old was entirely used to him not being around much. The sound of people talking below soon alerted her to people sharing the house with herself and her mother however, and she quickly puthlled herself out of her bed in response to this reverie. Knowing that her mother was a stickler for making sure that her daughter was always presentable, she took the time to quickly brush her hair and teeth, keeping her silver hair; a product of her parents' choice rather than genes, neat and bundling it in a pony tail. The red eyed girl happily went down the stairs and shushed her pet when the somewhat reptilian creature started to show it's excitement at the arrival of a familiar scent.

Looking into her home's living room, she was met with her mother and her brother sitting together and having a chat while some arbiters helped themselves to the snacks she left for them. Uncle Dimitri was an Arbiter-Proselyte, making sure that everyone was safe and that law-breakers got their due. It seemed like a nice job, but Catalina wanted to be an inquisitor when she grew up, it seemed like a much more fun thing to do than police work!

" _How is Anton?_ " Dimitri asked, the coat hanger physiqued man clasping his hands together and offering Anastasia a pleasant smile.

" _Anton is quite busy as of late, Headquarters really wants to see his project's prototype this year so he's been needed to work long hours._ " She responded, tilting her head ever so slightly to the left and offering him a smile in return, much more muted in comparison to his to be sure, but it made her face light up all the same.

" _The bastard needs to relax more often I think! He's going to kill himself with his work someday._ " Dimitri chuckled as he took a sip from his tea cup, rubbing his chin almost immediately after finishing.

" _True enough. I'm hoping he'll take his vacation weeks sooner than later._ " She sighed, slouching slightly in her chair before she noticed Catalina in the distance, looking through the railings of the stairs.

" _Catalina, what are you doing up?_ " She asked just as Dimitri turned his head around to Catalina and let out a hearty laugh.

" _Caty! How are you?_ " He said, throwing his arms wide as he picked himself out of his chair, giving his niece the biggest smile he could.

" _God how you've grown!_ " He said enthusiastically as Catalina dared to step forward, looking around the room before breaking into a short run into his arms, where she was quickly picked up and spun around by the joyful figure. Laughs were shared and hair was ruffled by knuckles before she was placed back on the ground.

" _Where have you been?_ " Catalina asked, eyes wide and smile bright.

" _Ah I've been doing my work, seeing that all the crooks are put where they belong and the people are safe._ " He said with a grin, placing his hands on his hips and positively beaming, to the chortling of Anastasia and the concerned looks of his operatives.

" _Did you catch anyone Uncle?_ " Catalina said, looked up at him with a gaze filled with wonder, a small smile creeping onto his face.

" _Ah yes of course. I recently caught Phantom Syndicate drug dealing operations red handed. The Syndicate is denying all ties of course, but I've managed to put some in prison. I'll let the inquisition take over from there._ " He said , patting her on the head after he was done speaking.

" _Anything else Uncle?_ " She said before noticing a heavy thump on the ground that briefly made everything in the room jolt.

" _What was that?_ " She asked before freezing just as she heard her pet snarling, yapping and hissing at something she couldn't see.

" _Merdag, please be quiet!_ " Catalina shouted up at the four limbed pet as it continuously made noise at some unseen aggressor.

Then came another "THUMP" followed by low humming sound followed in turn by the whiplash of a shockwave that forcefully shut down all power to that which received it and blew in the windows. Shrieks were heard from Catalina, short sharp screams of fear as glass blew into the room. Brief murmuring went throughout the room as the occupants of the house wildly theorized as to the cause of the sudden loss of power and the sounds.

" _Catalina, get Merdag please._ " Anastasia ordered, and to her tremendous relief; Catalina quickly went up to get the animal. Relief that was vindicated when the silence was cut by a trilling series of clicks and an ululating roar and the sound of many buildings crumbling or burning. Then came the screaming of the neighbours. Then the roof caved in as an impossible sight made itself very apparent.

A click filled roar was heard, a sound intermixed with the howled snarl of her family name as it began tearing open the house, shrugging off the almost immediate pyrokinetic flames that erupted across it's carapace, mandibles on the lower jaw splaying themselves outwards as it focused on one of the arbiters for a brief moment, after which he, as if on cue, imploded with a horrific combination of screaming that was quickly replaced by wet squelching, metal bending and snapping, ceramics shattering, and bones crunching. The other arbiters in the room fell to the same trick soon afterwards, and in an instant Dmitri forced Anastasia down as the monster continued to tear open the house.

" ** _Come out!_** " It snarled in a voice that no human throat could have uttered, a voice that made the room shake and quiver with it's all too apparent anger and rage. There was the roar of noise as Dmitri forced himself up and telekinetically launched a couch at the creature, pinging against its shielding and drawing forth a hateful snarl from the monstrosity.

Catalina squealed with terror and fright as she tried to hide anywhere she could, anywhere that wouldn't bring her under the blazing red gaze of the behemothic monster that had assailed her household. Noise overwhelmed her, fear sank into her very bones as more of the house started to crumble from the creature's flailings. She dared to take a look, a mistake if she ever made one.

Sweeping up dmitri in its clawed manipulator limbs, it flinched from rail pistol slugs to the head that brought up it's barriers. It flinched yes, but it showed no other signs of pain as it roared back at his final words of defiance. " _I die for Yuri!_ " Dmitri shouted, only to be met with. " ** _You die for nothing!_** " as it's other arm grabbed him at the upper body. A twisting motion was made, the terrible sound of bones cracking and flesh rupturing was heard, then came the pull. A spray of blood and organs that instinctively made her dinner want to escape through her throat decorated the room.

A terrifying roar of victory was made as it finally turned to Anastasia and opened it's mouth. To its shock however, she had stopped whining with fear. She instead, store down the creature in as dignified a posture as she could. Covered in blood, her expression hardened as she spread her arms wide. No matter, a spray of liquid rushed forth, followed by a click in the back of throat that made the spray erupt into a brilliant geyser of flames that reduced her to ash where she had stood.

As flammables combusted and anything that could explode did, it lurched its head up towards the night sky, roaring its triumph to the world. Then it turned towards the last remaining target. It smelled the air, its mind probed for thoughts, and it turned its head right towards the quivering catalina on the upper level of the house. Its mind began to work, but it never got the chance.

Alerted by the sudden power outages and the reports of frightened nearby observers from the time the first of the creature's strikes against the friends of the Ciobans as well as the word of traveling Quarian merchants, the Arbiters had brought in the colonial guard, diverting forces meant to deal with the sudden pirate and mercenary raid. Mass driver fire from would be Quarian converts to epsilonism smacked into the things back, eliciting a quick turn and a hateful roar. Arbiter fire soon followed, then came a full platoon of gatling tanks that made their opinion on the matter very clear. In a panic, it drove it's biotic and psychic power entirely towards it's own defense and quickly released a disabling pulse to buy it enough time to pick itself off the ground and escape.

A horrible wail went through the air as slugs followed it's path, but soon the beast was gone, and Catalina was left alone. Alone, the fear took time to subside, even as the Arbiters filed into the site and telekines quickly shoved rubble away to make the work of the others easier. She felt a quick probe for thoughts from a telepath, then the grip of telekinetics on her body to lift her down to the waiting team of arbiters. She heard "Keelah" and "By Yuri", but she didn't properly register them.

The pet followed, deemed also worth the rescuing as all the barriers needed to seal off the crime scene were placed behind her just as she was brought to an APC for transport back to the precinct. It was then that she realized the magnitude of what had happened. It was then that she finally started to cry.

* * *

_Research facility_

Landing back at the ruined facility, the creature made its report to the waiting mercenaries. " _It is done, and I...have made my choice._ " It hissed as it felt the pain of some grazing injuries suffered from the gatling tanks.

" _Hopefully the right one._ " Virog said, maintaining his feral, toothy grin.

" _I choose...both._ " It responded.

" _You will explain this, creature!_ " The Mutant demanded, anger as well as confusion present in his voice.

" _We will form a new organization...a new pact. As one._ " It hissed as it gazed around, sizing up the figures, and noting that the wraith had disappeared back into the shadows.

" _Our bands will be together. From this beginning, Fury and Blood will...be united._ " It continued as it gazed towards the landing craft that had brought in the attack force.

" _We must go now, but...our future will be a...bright one..._ " It said at last.

* * *

_Citadel, Days later._

Councillor Tevos needed some time to unwind. A visit to a restuarant suited her nicely. No hard partying or drinking at a bar, no, she was much too old for that. Just some light chats, good food, and cool drinks would suit her just fine. A glass of carbonated fruit juice sat next to her, and some fungal steak and vegetables, all freshly cooked, were waiting for her to enjoy.

She was soon surprised by Din Korlack sitting himself right across from her, the Volus councillor hefting himself onto the chair. Many other councillors came and went, but Volus lived for quite a while, and Korlack certainly wasn't looking for reasons to recuse himself from power anytime soon.

" _Korlack, what are you doing here?_ " She asked, trying to mask her surprise that someone who couldn't partake in a Restaurants fare would bring himself here.

" _Am I not permitted to see friends Tevos?_ " The Volus said, inhaling audibly at the end of his sentence, whatever expression he may have had under there being completely unreadable as he tilted his head to the left.

" _Fair enough._ " Tevos said, shrugging as she did so while Korlack got out his pad.

" _Have you seen the news recently?_ " Korlack asked, sucking in another breath. Tevos had to admit that no matter how long she spent with the Volus Councillor the breath thing was never anything less than grating at times.

" _The Batarians demanding our backing in space disputes with the Alliance? Otherwise I'm taking a well deserved break until the six of us have to convene again. In the meantime I'm trying to stay away from work matters._ " She asked before quickly placing some of the vegetables in her mouth and chewing thoroughly.

" _Apparently there was a big attack on a remote Dominion world. The Earth-Clanners fear the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Real lives, not clones or genetic constructs._ " Korlack responded as he looked through the datapad hooked into his suit mounted omnitool.

" _Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Mutant terrorists. The mutant-clan paid the other two off with Tiberium. No word on the Phantom Syndicate._ " He said, bringing up the necessary facts and data needed for Tevos to get a clear grasp of what had happened.

" _I'm less worried about the harm done to the Dominion than I am about what they'll do._ " She said. In truth she had been secretly working to try and dismantle Epsilon for thirty years, finding some way to put cracks in the wall of Yuri's empire. Like with her feelings regarding the Hegemony, she personally dreamed of a future where both governments had collapsed and been replaced with something better. It may take generations, even by Asari standards, but she was convinced that the Dominion had to go.

" _Everyone is concerned with what everyone else will do. When I pushed for acqueiscing to their demands for element zero technology I did so knowing we traded nothing of real value so that the Midgard-clan next to them would be compelled to give us something of value in return for that very same technology without antagonizing them. I'm sure they'll bribe some pirate gangs to take revenge without causing a storm. They're quiet overall._ " Korlack said in response.

" _I don't think we should have given them anything but sanctions and scorn._ " Tevos said, a frown decorating her face as she took a swig from her glass and more bites from her food.

" _Sanctions haven't done much to the Batarians have they? Sure they're poorer for it but they still fund slavers and pirates. To make them change it would be better to make what we object to unprofitable for them. Self-reliant economies don't care if you shut them off. And it's very easy for a multi-planet civilization to be self reliant Tevos. You don't like their social engineering? Fine, find ways to make the risk overcome the value. Preferably without starting a war with the Earth-clan._ " Korlack said, his voice seeming almost haughty in how it carried itself.

" _Assassinating Yuri would be a start._ " She muttered half-way to herself.

" _And start a bloody civil war or incite them to seek revenge. Hardly a profitable venture. No, I say keep on with the attempts at brain draining them._ " Korlack countered, continuing to fiddle with his omnitool as he looked through the news.

" _I'm well aware of that. I'm simply just lapsing into what I wish would happen._ " She sighed as she leaned back into her chair, taking a peak outside to get another look at the wondrous views the Citadel offered.

" _The Midgard-Clan are reporting a rash of slaver and pirate raids recently._ " Din Korlack said as he looked through his omnitool, his voice sinking as he thought over the consequences. Nobody liked dealing with the Batarians longer than they had to.

Tevos soon buried her head in her hands. When she asked for her job to be more interesting, by the goddess she didn't mean like this.

* * *

** Media depicting Epsilon as villains attracts controversy **

"Tossima Claciria, a noted Asari technothriller author, created a novel known as "Purple Storm Rising" that many criticize as overly provocative twenty five years ago, when hardly anyone of importance was born since contact began with the Unitary Dominion. But compared to a rather substantial number of more recent media, the depiction of the Dominion in Purple Storm Rising seems positively tame. Novels such as "Voyage of the Old Varren" depict the Dominion as a nation of psychotic murderers and rapists, while others depict them as a state easily prone to ultranationalist coups that launch wars where the villains gleefully cackle over how they will conquer the galaxy, only for their initial victories; if they get any initial victories; to be reversed and the war brought to their homestead and leading in the downfall of Epsilon. Others simply have Yuri decide to enact plans of galactic conquest. The video game series "Call of the Battlefield: Honor Company: Galactic Operations" have shown Epsilon launching invasions that would "require teleporters behind ever bathroom door in C-Space and Alliance territory" as well. Many believe that this is an incredibly unfair depiction of the Dominion, and only serves to further divide them from C-Space."

** Another doomsday prophecy bust **

"Yet another one of many prophecies claiming that the galaxy as we know it will end has come to nothing as no manner of apocalypse befalls the galaxy in the year 2367. While the chance of conflict between the Alliance and the Hegemony remains high, such a conflict is not expected to match the devastation of the Krogan Rebellions or the Rachni Wars. Indeed it would seem that we are set for another largely quiet year as a general state of peace continues between the great powers of galactic politics. In financial terms, the economies of all major states have continued to remain stable and no great political crises are either in motion or appear to be in the making."

** Rachni scare on mining colony **

"The mining colony of Yorok G-3X reportedly saw what was believed to be a surviving Rachni ship by the miners, but upon investigation by local authorities; vetted by experts of the Rachni wars, including a Krogan veteran of the conflict; the scare has turned out to simply be a stowaway artificial life form believed to be the product of the Dominion's Headquarters, known for their many strides in genetic research both of the ordinary and the entirely unsavory. The creature was reported to be escaped by Dominion officials, and termination of the aggressive creature was sought."

** Attack on Epsilon planet by pirates! **

"Planet Dracul, once designated planet K-2L when first discovered by Earth-native astronomers in the year 2003 by their calendar, has recently been subjected to an attack by space pirates who have caused a great deal of damage; including to a research facility, and have destroyed a number of homes in the area. Heads of state, even of general enemies of Epsilon, have offered condolences to the Dominion in an attempt to provide an image of solidarity against the threats of terrorism and piracy the galaxy over. The death toll of this attack has so far been counted as over a thousand and twenty."

* * *

Codex Entries:

Phenomenon: Psionics;

Psionics are a key facet of humanity and the Scrin. While still a rare phenomenom amongst the Allied-Soviets and Forgotten, Epsilon has engendered a one hundred percent incident of psychic ability among it's human citizen base and it is Epsilon who holds the most advanced Psionics in the known universe, excepting the Scrin, of whom little data is available about. Psionics, or Psychics as some refer to it, are considered distinct from Biotics as they are not generated through manipulations of mass effect fields. Rather, these abilities seem to be generated from the mind itself.

Essentially the imposing the will on reality, psychic powers have a wide variety of effects. For simplicity, they are divided into Telekinesis, Telepathy, Psychoenergetics, and Psychobiologics. Telekinesis is the field most similar to Biotics and involves applying physical force through one's mind, typically in the form of barriers, lifting, pulling, pushing, and crushing actions, hurtling objects, or simply moving objects without actually contacting them. Telepathy is the art of mind to mind action, whose most commonly known applications are mind-reading, mind control, and mental communication, though it is more than possible to utilize telepathy to directly attack the psyche. Psychoenergetics create and direct energy through mental action, something commonly seen in Yuri's initiates; who as part of their military training all learn basic pyrokinetic ability.

Psychobiologics is a substantially rarer field that involve control over biological functions. Due to being much more complicated, it is rarely seen even in Yuri's forces. Psychobiologics typically learn to control their own bodily functions before attempting that of any other, and cross-species psychobiologics requires yet more training and focus. The first sign that such a thing even existed was brought to Yuri's attention by Malver; head of Scorpion Cell, who could manipulate his bodily needs to survive in the desert with far fewer supplies than a non-augmented human normally would.

Psionics are said to be expressable through either genetic conditions or through artificial means. Naturally occuring psionics are difficult to focus and control (though Epsilon seems to have found a way to massively ease the process of using genetic based Psychics) and so far only seem to appear in humans, though it is believed that the Scrin are a wholly innately psychic species, while artificial conditions can be induced in other species through implantation, surgery, and to a small degree; through intense focus or willpower. However, in the last case the effect is so small as to be nearly statistically insignificant in the face of other factors that occur in such situations such as Adrenaline or intense training, and can easily be missed if one is not already specifically looking for it.

The Strength of one's Psychic abilities seem to be determined by a combination of genetics, the quality of one's implants and regulators, the mental ability of the user in question, one's discipline and focus, the training and experience in the "school" that they are using that they've had, and how long they have actively expressed psychic abilities. Epsilon's inner circle is considered to have the most potent psychics, with Yuri of course being the first and foremost among them. Epsilon is believed to have more and more powerful psychics than the rest of the galaxy put together and is recognized as the unquestioned master of psychic research, with the Allied-Soviets having the second greatest number of psychics.

Among non-humans, Krogan in search of a route to further power frequently do whatever they need to do in order to receive Psychic surgery, and the number of Psychic Krogan continues to grow, especially as more Krogan flock to Epsilon for it's work on a genophage cure. Turians are considered well suited for Psychic abilities due to their cultural emphasis on discipline and focus, though the Citadel's own Psychic research lags substantially behind the human powers. On the other hand, cabals of Psychic Turians are becoming an increasingly common sight, and Psychic Turian Specters are a powerful force for order. The Salarian Union continues to keep it's psychic research program under wraps, though it is believed that STG teams are their forerunners in this field.

The Asari republic is reluctant to delve deep into the field, but is believed to share research with other citadel members, and there are a handful of Psychic Asari going around. The Hanar and Drell have made some strides into the field, but continue to remain reluctant to advertise any results, something that they share with the Elcor. The Volus pour most of their effort into telepathy for the business advantages it provides, and are second behind the Salarians in terms of Citadel psychic research. The Batarian Hegemony's propaganda feeds boast of unparalleled success in this new burgeoning field of research, but intelligence reports cast considerable doubts on these claims. Quarian psychics are primarily prevalent in those who have converted to Epsilonism.

Treaties: Treaty of Farixen;

The Treaty of Farixen was abolished by unanimous vote of the council not long after Human contact, beginning a massive galactic arms race fueled by the proliferation of human manufacturing technology. National navies have increased exponentially in size, especially due to the exponential decrease in the cost of maintaining military units. Due to constant construction; hard numbers on fleet sizes are difficult to ascertain. The Turian Primarch however, boasts that if something like the Rachni wars were to happen again; the galaxy would be militarized enough to crush it flat in an instant.

In the past, the treaty of Farixen was meant to discourage naval arms build up by placing restrictions on the fleets of member governments of the Citadel due to the tremendous destructive power of a dreadnought. The Turians, being seen as the main peacekeepers, would be allowed to make the most of them, the Volus, Asari, Elcor, Hanar, and Salarians, being council members, would be given permission to make a healthy number of them, while council associate species would be the most heavily limited. The ratio is 5:3:1. For every five dreadnoughts made by the Turians, only three would be made by any other given council member, and only one by any given council associate.

The expansion of the number of potential threats to the Citadel revealed through contact with humanity and the revelation of NEXUS and the Scrin has lead to massive arms build up not only in Citadel Space, but also in the Terminus Systems and other areas. Even the Quarian Migrant fleet has expanded massively as acquiring and building new ships became progressively easier and easier. Many criticize this state of affairs as it would make future wars far more devastating and due to it's costs, but others are highly supportive of the massive influx of defensive efforts, believing that it makes the galaxy safer.

Substances: Tiberium;

Tiberium is a material that while radioactive, curiously lacks any sort of half-life. Best described as a mutative, assimilative substance, Tiberium is capable of radically altering it's own properties given time. When first discovered, Tiberium was formed in pods and was classified as a "pseudo-organic" substance due to it's reliance on the usage of mutated trees or other viable subjects as spore producers, whereupon these launched spores would mature into new tiberium pods. Tiberium was first noted for the danger it posed to the Earth's environment, and it's usefulness, as it was not only uniquely suited for nanofabrication, but also for energy production and as it leeched useful minerals from the ground into itself, it made conventional mining unnecessary.

Presently Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles — a muon or tauon — collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.

While attempts at controlling the spread of Tiberium have been made, due to it's virulent nature and the depth of the reliance on the material that all three major human/cetacean polities possess, it has spread into Citadel Space and the Terminus Systems. While Tiberium is highly valued by all governments, the damage it does to ecosystems has made imports and exports of the material very tightly regulated by the Council for fear of vast ecological damage. Earth, the homeworld of Humanity and Cetaceankind, has completely lost a full 30% of it's land surface to Tiberium, where no carbon based life form can survive without protection. Mars is similarly scarred by Tiberium growth.

Due to it's value, Tiberium has become a common commodity on the black market and is known to be wildly popular as a performance enhancer. Those who survive Tiberium exposure and begin to be mutated by it demonstrate greater size, strength, endurance, intelligence, reflexes, increased lifespan, enhanced regenerative powers, and myriad other benefits, though mental enhancements are rare due to the need to expose the brain. Surviving exposure and gaining beneficial traits without carefully administered infusion treatments is difficult and rare and generally leads to obvious scarring and growths of inert Tiberium crystals on the body. Uncontrolled Tiberium mutation can result in the conversion of the body into cancer-like cellular structures and the devolution of all structure into a horrific visceroid, upon which there is no hope of recovery and the only course of action is death.

Tiberium is known to come in multiple colours, with Green being the most common, and least valuable. Blue is of greater worth, followed by Purple, Yellow, Orange, and Red. The reason why Tiberium's value does not adhere to the standard scale of colour frequency is currently a matter of much debate among Tiberium researchers. Tiberium research is a burgeoning and highly lucrative field and in Citadel Space, the Volus are making sure to acquire the largest share of the substance, and are among it's most enthusiastic supporters. Others can often be more skeptical given the material's obvious dangers.

* * *

AN: Whew that took me longer than I wanted it to. I will note that as I had the story two thirds of the way done already on Sufficient Velocity before working on the finishing touches that other chapters are likely to take longer to post after wards.

Now in response to the thoughtful criticism provided by the one Anon, I will admit that I probably had the Council go a bit too soft on Epsilon, but I am trying to make Epsilon seem much less like the cartoonish bad guys that Yuri was in the canon version of Yuri's revenge, and to an extent what they still kinda were in Mental Omega 3.0 and 2.0's story lines.

The Epsilon Dominion isn't Nazi Germany or North Korea, but rather more like the Kruschev thaw era Soviet Union, often belligerent and antagonistic but not really outright evil. There's individual liberties but the political power is definitely stratified into the upper crust of society. Some may call them the Evil Empire, but I'm trying to avoid making them just be giant jerkwads for the sake of it. Bioware did that to the Batarians and ended up giving us a government that to the fandom, really only exists to get crapped on (and hell even in the canon the Batarians seem to only exist to get crapped on.)

As for who's going to be seen and who's not, human canon characters are very likely to be butterflied into nonexistence as my plans stand right now. Alien canon characters are more likely to survive in a form you'd recognize, perhaps with their dates jumped forward a bit. Liara's probably still going to be a hundred or so but Wrex would be even older for example.


	4. In yo face

_"I'm sure you're expecting some super witty quote from me, but honestly all I could think about when we were launching ourcounter-piracy operations was "up yours you four eyed fucks", yeah I'd say I was pretty mad."_

\- Allied Pilot Jimmy James Walter

" _Conflict is the lifeblood of a nation. Our state and our nation have grown weary and corrupt not because of the sanctions of the two eyes at the Citadel but because we have sat and done so little for so long. A conflict with this Alliance who would dare seek to deny us a Batarian millenium would be a good start._ "

\- Jerkal Hur'uk, Batarian General.

* * *

_Allied-Soviet Space-station; Screaming Eagle, 30th of April, 2368_

Wolfgang von Schafhausen wasn't the biggest boy to be sure, he was eight after all. With blond hair and blue eyes any lingering doubt about his heritage not already shattered by his name were dispelled. But he was enthused by everything involving his parents. The call had come for battle, the Union was under attack by one of the largest forces of Pirates, Mercenaries, Slavers, and Terminus Warbands seen in years. In an age before manufacturing became so easy, the Terminus warbands; while certainly powerful and feared, tended to amass only in the dozens. Instead, a lightning offensive of more than one and a half thousand warships of frigate scale and above had taken place, including fifteen dreadnought class vessels and twelve carriers.

He heard something about cloning being used for more soldiers, probably from the bad guys. He just tried to imagine the size of such a force, but scale was something even adults struggled with. However, being the bright boy he was, he made sure to not stay out of the loop entirely, and was glued to any news he could get while he was being taken care of by the robot nannies. His parents may have been in the military, but his family wasn't lacking for resources, he wasn't a "Von" for nothing after all.

He turned on the device and was immediately greeted by the face of a dolphin at one of those news anchor tables, all sorts of infographs buzzing around behind the dolphin as a charming young woman, probably from the pacific front territories given her Asian features, sat directly across from the exo-suit supported cetacean. The symbol of the Allied-Soviets, a white eagle imposed over a Red star with a yellow hammer and sickle clutched in it's talons with spotlight like streaks fanning towards it on the blue flag, soon materialized on the screen behind them, followed by the logo of "ASBC War-Room" appearing in flashy typefaces with bullet holes surrounding them.

" _Good day viewers and welcome to the war-room, where we give you the straight facts on our nations' ongoing war against piracy and pirates of all stripes. Today, a massive offensive lead by the Batarian Terminus warlord Skunner has launched a heavy attack on our territory, devastating many worlds in the process. Prime Minister Ackerman has promised a hard hitting counter-offensive and has warned that those responsible for this horrific tragedy will pay the ultimate price for the loss of so many lives._ " The Dolphin started, it's clicking and squeaking being almost flawlessly synced over by it's translating software.

" _Let's have the word from Ackerman himself, shall we?_ " The woman asked as the screen transitioned with the help of a distinctly anime esque girl riding a chibified mechanical bear "pulling" the edge of the screen over to the feed of the White Kremlin at Terra Novum. A mix of European Neo-classical architecture and Soviet bloc slavic designs, the White Kremlin was the heart of Union executive power. And there stood their Prime Minister, a hard-line bald man who had long advocated for getting tough with the Epsilon and *especially* the Batarians and the many Terminus warlords.

" _My countrymen, today we have been once again, viciously attacked by the heartless warmongerers of the Terminus systems. Warlord Skunner has taken many lives from us, but I say no more. Which is why I am instating the Piracy order. Any pirate or any rogue force aiding a pirate will be immediately put to death upon capture if they refused to surrender. I am also increasing our patrols, doubling our military output, and increasing the guard of our colonies._ " He said, getting the obvious facts out of the way first, all the political niceties that most politicians would say. But of course, with Ackerman, there was always an ahh...bonus to his speeches and declarations.

" _And if the criminals in Kar'shan don't like it they can kiss my ass. We've tolerated your support of pirates for thirty years. If you ask me your government is a scourge on this galaxy that must be destroyed for the sake of your people and every sapient being in the stars. If we see another large scale operation backed by you, the eagle is going to rip off your heads and shit freedom down your necks. We're going to be putting Skunner's head on a pike and there ain't shit you can do about it. Either you disown him as a pirate and he gets incinerated by Prism beam or double tapped in the head by our troops or you protect him and you have an act of war on your grubby little hands. Your choice you four eyed freaks._ " He said, his voice remaining absolutely serious despite the nature of what he was saying, his intense stare never deviating from the camera, and not so much as one glance at speech papers or teleprompters being made. A round of applause and cheering went across the gathered press as he showed why he was elected with such huge margins.

" _Oh and as for Skunner. We're coming for you. There's nowhere you can hide, no rock you can crawl under, no asylum you can seek that is going to protect you from us. We're going to get you. We're going to kill you. You can make bank on it. For what you've done, there is no way in hell you're going to die peacefully in bed. We're going to systematically destroy your life's work and end your reign of terror once and for all. Thank you all for listening. Now, questions?_ " He said to the gathered press as they all started raising their hands one after the other.

Wolfgang's viewings were however, quickly interrupted by a call. Flipping out his personal digital assistant, he was greeted by the face of his mother on the other end despite their tremendous distance from one another. He managed a smile and a wave to his mother just as she gave him one. " _Hello Wolfgang! How are you?_ " She asked, her warm face radiant with affection.

" _I'm good Mom! I did my homework like you asked! But where are you going?_ " He asked, laying the PDA on the floor so that he could lie down on the couch.

" _I've told you before Wolfgang, deployment orders are to head out. Your father and I are going to help blow up the pirates so that they can't hurt anyone else._ "

" _Will you be back soon?_ " He asked, tilting his head to the side while his mom dimmed her smile slightly.

" _I don't know Wolfgang, we'll see soon. Just make sure to stay good in school and keep out of fights with the Imperial girl. I don't want to receive another notice when I get home. Are we clear?_ " She said, jokingly pointing an accusatory finger at him and chuckling.

" _I'll do my best mom._ " He said, perhaps a bit noncommittally; earning Wolfgang an eyebrow quirk from his mother and a fold of her arms.

" _Wolfgang._ " She said expectantly.

" _Alright, I promise!_ " He said, throwing his hands up in the air while laughs were passed all around.

" _Love you mom, say hi to dad for me!_ " He said with a cheery and impeccable grin on his face as he waved goodbye.

" _I'll make sure of it! Good bye._ " She said as she returned the wave and closed out of the conversation soon afterwards.

* * *

 _ASSV Glory of Nations, Carrier, 1st of may, 2368_  
  
Dietrich von Schafhausen sat in the cockpit of his strike craft as the carrier Glory of Nations emerged via chrono-rift before the planet of Tyranasia, where Skunner had chosen to make his stand in an all or nothing gambit against Task force Strakh sent out to destroy him. In the past; a battle between thousands of frigate scale and larger vessels such as now would have been unthinkably massive. But this wasn't the past anymore. In the past, an armada wouldn't deploy out of blue-white tears in space time that informed the pirates and slavers that they had an apocalyptic battle on their hands.

" _Dietrich reporting ready for launch._ " He said as he checked his controls, nodding with satisfaction as each and every one of them reported a green light. His Achilles class super-striker was not an ordinary strike craft. For one thing it was much larger. Sixty meters long and powered by an anti-matter pulse rocket for maximum maneuverability; and whose reactors powered a devastating array of spectrum beam emitters on it's wings with a central wave-force cannon; along with tesla and anti-matter missiles as just a bit of extra firepower. As extra insurance, two sets of high intensity short ranged lasers on the top and bottom were the last part of the piece; meant to discourage swarm attacks.

The glory of nations was given what it needed to operate a flight of six of these craft; paired with the usual array of other strike craft all meant to ensure that someone somewhere was going to have a bad day. A flight of six super strikers was enough to make a real difference, even in a battle like this where the weather forecast was cloudy with a chance of furball. And well, he wasn't going to be flying the only wing of Achilles today.

" _How's the wife and kid?_ " one of his wingmates asked as they were given the leave to take off from the enormous carrier. Dietrich scolded himself mentally; he forgot to send his own message to little Wolfgang after Hannah reminded him. He made a mental note to set up a call with him the instant he was able to.

" _They're doing just fine Yuki, haven't had any complaints from the school about Wolfgang since he got in that fight, and Hannah? Hannah's tougher than the tank she drives._ " He said with a chuckle as his full body armored flight suit glistened somewhat in the light it was reflecting from the panels and screens in his strike craft.

Already the first salvos of fire were traded, already some ships were lost on both sides, and already his scanners had filled with countless new contacts; swarms of strike craft and drones that had been vomited out by the pirate fleet.

The two swarms approached each other, and in the space of a single tense second; the stars became filled with violence.

His own wing powered through the screen of Raider interceptors; spectrum rays flaring to life and spraying hateful multicoloured death wherever they could, each of the emitters swiveling in their mounts on the wing and singling out a target. In such a target rich environment; his craft reaped a rich number of kills that would surely lead to yet more marks under his kill tally.

" _Scratch thirty pirate drones and six interceptors._ " He chuckled as the turret mounted lasers on his craft swatted down some more drones as he made his way to his real target; periodically firing as the ship's A.I plotted solutions while he maneuvered himself and his flightmates into an attack run on one of the pirate cruisers.

" _Cruiser is in my sight, give the engines a kick and charge up wave force cannons. Show these fuckers that they've messed with the wrong people._ " Dietrich said while a chorus of affirmatives came in reply; including the clicking and squeaking of a dolphin and the warbling of a squid.

His Achilles hummed with power as the cruiser's GARDIANs busily tried to ward off a swarm of Space Paladin drones that were making a nuisance of themselves in the ranks of the pirates, with several destroyer class vessels having already found themselves bursting into explosions while the alpha wing lined up for the kill on the heavy cruiser.

Just as it fired off a mass accelerator slug at some distant foe; Wave-Force Tachyonic particles forced to interact with Baryonic matter shot forth from the noses of the sleek Achilles craft like brilliant streaks of white annihilation. The cruiser's kinetic barriers blocked some of the force for the briefest moment then they crumpled, then the armor gave way, then the decks, then the armor on the other side as the cruiser was sheared apart by the fury of Red Flight.

The ship's oxygen supplies provided the fuel for one last explosion while Eezo from the ruptured core bled into the void along with humanoid shapes who had been sucked into the vacuum only to be targeted as debris and zapped with prejudice by the lasers of the Achilles craft, killing them all as the prism rays danced across the surfaces of the cruiser's escorting frigates and destroyers, sending many of them to their dooms in a glorious inferno while Dietrich gunned his craft downwards to get in position to unleash a nuclear missile volley at another distracted capital ship, drones struck by the lasers of the achilles falling apart while his squadron made their descent.

A number of impacts struck the next target and it too joined it's comrade struck by the wave-force cannons in oblivion, hurried along by a spat of prism rays to ensure that as few of them managed to reach their escape pods as possible.

But even this daring drama above the surface of the world was just part of the story. Deeming the pirates sufficiently distracted; the Fleet Command decided to send in the vanguard via chrono-rift to begin the ground phase while the spacelanes were tied up in a massive furball of a battle.

* * *

 _Planet Tyranasia, Vuldoros Continent, Kleinbak plains_  
  
On the plains, a Batarian manned his anti-aircraft missile battery with pride. The targeting VIs were top notch and his job promised to be an easy one. Just let the Allied-Soviets come in with their shock and awe tactics and blow them away before they could do anything about it. With the triple A and GARDIAN laser sets supplementing these SAMs, any flier would have to have a death wish to even approach this area.

Anti-ground defenses and regular patrols bolstered the area's defenses. Even orbital drops would run the risk of triggering the planet's defenses long before they ever hit the ground. Yes there was much to be proud of. Strength, competence, and a well thought out plan. Even a chronosphere teleportation drop would probably still bring the attentions of the anti-ground defenses.

But of course, they failed to take into consideration the fact that first; little drones could be chronosphered in to relay data before they were inevitably destroyed; followed by the chrono-shift of a number of large bombs that required the frantic attentions of the combat engineers to defuse. But then all semblance of order fell apart when the Allied-Soviets revealed their most audacious plan; chrono-shifting in vehicles directly above the defenses as their positions were marked.

Low lying guns and missile batteries were crushed by heavy metal, plastics, and ceramics smashing into them from the air as the vehicles immediately began firing away. On top of this particular Batarian came not a Kodiak main battle tank or even a Didko heavy tank, and certainly not a Nodachi Light Tank. But the full five hundred ton mass of a Doomsday superheavy battle tank, a vehicle that showed it's clear lineage from the mighty Apocalypse and Mammoth tank of many centuries past, dropped on his head after being teleported fifty feet above him. His death was mercifully swift as sir Isaac Newton made his body his bitch as a satisfying "splat" sound made itself known amongst the noise of the tank making it's landing after it appeared over his head in a flash of blue and white.

With the painted on symbol of a roaring mechanical bear, the Doomsday Tank "Steel Bear" spoke with it's twin railguns; selecting tesla rounds that exploded among the batarians and sent forth a dazzling array of lightning as Perun's fury incinerated the Batarians where they stood; not caring one iota for their kinetic barriers and melting their gear and drones to slag as the five hundred ton behemoth rolled forward; striking at a rapidly taking off gunship with tusk missiles that ripped through it's vulnerable turbines; Prism reapeaters sputtering forth brightly coloured rays of doom from where one would expect pintle or hull mounted machine guns.

A Batarian Tank tried to roll forward to meet the Steel Bear, but after it's shell bounced off to no effect, the other vehicle simply kept on rolling forward and crushed the other vehicle beneath it's massive weight, loading nuclear warheads into it's next round of shells and firing them at a site of bunkers outed by the drones. Two ear splitting cracks were issued by the sound barrier as protest. Two far louder and brighter explosions dominated the horizon as the bunkers were given a double tap of nuclear fire. Finally, with the LZ secured; the commander decided to speak.

" _This is Hannah von Schafhausen, Steel Bear reporting in. Is the area secured?_ " She asked, waiting for responses before shouting out her next set of orders as the sudden silence of the area informed her that her force could move on.

" _Move through the fallout zone ASAP to hit their bases and hit them hard! Artillery support will be provided and we have some MCVs on the case. Who dares wins! Ura!_ " She said, shouting her unit's motto and smiling at the uniformity of the " _URA!_ " shouts as the vehicles began to come together. They needed to keep their force concentrated so that as much force as possible could be brought to bear in as small a space as possible, spreading out would likely mean their slow death.

The armored force thundered forward with deadly intent; sweeping out those pirates and mercenaries who had withstood the nuclear assault with extreme prejudice as they sought to ensure that the MCVs and mobile war factories would be able to do their jobs unmolested. Even with the escort vehicles already dropped in; it was always good to keep the enemy off guard.

Hannah flipped some switches in her vehicle as the armored force barreled through the immediately radioactive terrain to get at the nearby mercenary base. A number of the Nodachis and Multigunner IFVs that had rushed ahead were struck by Eclipse biotics that worked not to try and show off by crushing them; which would have been a wasteful expenditure of energy, but to hold them in place or bog them down for anti-tank munitions to fire and strike down the light vehicles.

The Tsivil mk 39 and Borillo mk 38 IFVs halted their advance while automated combatants swarmed forward to absorb losses for their comrades and V32 missiles, Katyusha Rockets, and Valkyrie Self Propelled Guns fired from forces comfortably back in the base rained down hell upon the base's positions meant to keep those biotics pinned down long enough for the heavier vehicles to roll forth and add their own voice to the growing drama of battle.

She took a look through one of her tank's cameras and spotted a flash; followed by one of the Kodiak tanks erupting into flame as a mass accelerated round pierced through it's exposed flank, bringing the vehicle to a complete halt while those of the crew who survived quickly filed out into the hellstorm of fire already consuming the area.

" _Gunner, turn to my mark and load armor piercing rounds, have the missile pods fire frag rounds to flush out his friends too._ " She ordered as the behemothic doom tank rolled it's turret over to the probable location of the tank destroyer as it claimed another Kodiak tank, aiming for a weak point in the vehicle between the small space where the tank's turret met it's chassis, a shot that would have required an excellent gunner and V.I to make on that moving Kodiak.

But before the Batarian Tank Destroyer could fire again; it's hull was blasted clean through by a double tap; though the first shell was enough to overwhelm it's barriers and armor; the second shell was insurance that it was dead and that none of the crew could survive and post their experience, unless of course; the vehicle was a drone, she thought a V32 missiles crashed all across the area with thunderous force; punctuated by the crash of Katyusha rockets and artillery shells all meant to cause as much damage as possible before abrubtly halting after thirty seconds to let the vehicles roll in.

" _Tsivils, Borillos, I want those of you with mancannons to launch first, we'll roll up support as fast as we can._ " She ordered, beginning a second artillery bombardment; but not with shells or rockets; but with infantry equipped with jump jets and mass effect field manipulators who darkened the sky with their myriad shapes; from heavily armored desolators and Tesla Troopers to elite peacekeepers and Imperial Warriors to armored warbears and terror drones. Landing in the rear areas of their foe's encampment, these infantry immediately began to wreak havoc while the armored columns rolled forth to smash the base between the two pincers they had set up.

* * *

Jarrok Vor'gul was to put it lightly; terrified. It had all gone so wrong so quickly. The Alliance's forces had swept across the fields like a tidal wave and were relentlessly pressing forward. The Asari bitch who had been tasked with lookout on his position had died trying to keep his unit's discipline. She was so busy maintaining biotic barriers that she failed to notice a burrowing Terror Drone exploding from the ground and tearing her chest open. He had managed to gun down the drone; not until it had torn through three of his friends and sliced off the legs of another; but he managed to shoot it to pieces until the horrible jerky mass of bladed limbs stopped moving.

It was at the very least; fragile. The Prism Gun he had managed to acquire definitely helped with taking it down, but there were still more of the damned Alliance troops coming in to smash what parts of his base were still standing. He repeated mantras of discipline to himself to calm his nerves, reminding himself that these were just two eyed freaks, it didn't matter if he died so long as he made sure that his death counted for something. Falling back to another unit in good order, he made sure to take potshots wherever he could afford to do so; trying to keep the advancing wave of machines and infantry back.

He had long given up on air support; the sheer density of anti-air here had kept the gunships thoroughly grounded and the bombers were wary of crossing into the range of their anti-air assets, and Allied-Soviet VTOLs were already starting to make themselves known. Twinblades raked the battlefield with gatling mass-drivers, or in the case of lucky ones; tesla dischargers; and deadly braces of missiles that they made known to the world as they hunted for enemy forces and deployed infantry or extra vehicles where needed. Siege Vultures raked across the battlefield with their gatlings before setting down to unfurl powerful howitzers to pummel positions in close support of their troops. Arquebus Gunships struck with dazzling maneuverability and firepower, and he had lost more than a few friends to support craft equipped with strange things such as Cryogenic and SHRINK beams.

Hell he had seen a big imposing Krogan reduced to knee height by a sweep from one of their Scientific "Sigmund" class Copters, where a simple tesla trooper punt to the face was enough to knock him out of commission. But Jarrok had no intention of dying here. Not to the second terror drone he shot down with the particle sprayer shotgun he scraped together the money to buy, not to the battle drones he repeatedly shot from the sky, nor to the robot tank he had to take a fusion anti-tank warhead from to take down. But he could see that the battle was not going the way of the Pirates. This was supposed to be the operation that put egg on Ackerman's face and got him out of office and replaced with someone less...fiery about his hatred of the Hegemony.

He had no idea that he'd be forced to flee from these strong points by a sudden, well, his own language had a different term for it, but to them it was "Blitzkrieg". Hell, he could barely see with all the dust and smoke clouds the enemy was kicking up or firing forth. But he was no coward. He was afraid yes, but he wasn't going to let that fear rule him; even as the enemy came closer and closer with every passing moment. He ducked into a trench, brought out his assault rifle, and immediately began firing with any other soldier who had sought shelter in the trench; shooting down one of the human soldiers with a series of bursts to the head that sent the man (or woman, he couldn't tell), flopping to the ground. Other troopers, probably not peacekeepers given their lighter armor, ducked away and moved out of the way as smoke grenades detonated before them.

He tried to peer through the smoke fired by a new set of grenades, adjusting the functions on his helmets' lenses to get a better picture, hearing something rumbling as others in the ad hoc combat group formed to try and present some resistance chattered with what suppressive fire they could provide. Hearing the ping of something against composite armor, he narrowed his eyes as he finally found a setting capable of piercing through the smoke. Through it he was able to see a borillo that he identified all too late before it vomited out a massive tendril of blue-white ultra-high temperature burning fluids.

The radiant heat from the Latin Confederation designed vehicle was unbearably hot even as he threw himself out of the trench as fast as he possibly could. He knew better than to look behind himself. Everyone who didn't get out of that trench was dying painfully at that moment. Anyone who managed to avoid the flames was being shot to pieces by the pintle mounted prism rays that had a field day with exposed targets while the hull mounted flamethrowers swiveled back and forth for maximum coverage. A missile was fired at the sides of the Borillo, but the prism rays swiveled around to fire at the missile and zapped it out the sky with a "FSHHHIIING" sound.

The already crackling flames were soon added to by the fresh roar of yet more burning material as the Borillo spun on one track to bring itself to the infantry who had dared fire it, and the mercs who had made their presence known were either mercifully flash incinerated or ran out of cover screaming and flailing as they burned. Nothing that could be done for them now he thought; as Drones deployed by the more tech-savvy troopers in the base flew forth to provide what combat support they could while he sought to flee to yet another strongpoint.

The tearing sound of a pillbox's machine gun tore through the noise of battle; seeking to suppress incoming Alliance soldiers. That would make a good rally point; he thought as Eclipse Asari mercenaries formed sent forth rippling waves of light blue power with arcane gestures, and he thought he could spot a number of psychics from Turian mercenary cabals adding their own fire to the mixture, roasting a number of Allied-Soviet soldiers who had managed to brave the pillbox's heavy machine guns.

He himself quickly sought a safe route to the defense line; leaping over the rubble and broken terrain as well hidden tank destroyers finally made their presence known to take down Allied-Soviet armor as it advanced, ear splitting sonic booms and ammo cook offs all but deafening him while two soldiers that had tried to flee with him ran afoul of jumpjet using peacekeepers; the thundrous belching roar of their shotguns being followed by the wet thumps of carcasses hitting the ground.

He refused to die, not here, not when he was so close to the agreed upon extraction point. He could almost taste his impending safety before what he had thought were rocks opened fire with tesla coils. Mirage assault guns had sneaked up on this group and shrieking arcs of electricity had leaped out to consume the defensive line from the rear; leaping from soldier to soldier as they fried each one to ash in turn. Wild screaming was heard as flesh and bone crumbled to dust and armor charred into a deep; dark black.

More screaming ensued as Mirage transports disgorged a wave of Kabuto clad warriors who unfurled seemingly archaic sword like weapons to advance upon the shocked and confused enemy while these transports supported their soldiers with a wave of launched frag grenades and mass-accelerator fire. Imperial Warriors, he remembered the briefing on them. Fanatical soldiers from the Empire of the Rising sun and considered some of the most vicious shock troopers the Alliance had to offer.

The surviving Asari were targeted first as the Imperial Warriors' swords lit with brilliant white energy; the power of the wave-force and intense vibrations and heating that gave their swords their famed cutting power so long as the energy fields were kept active. The Asari, and himself, opened fire, but it was not enough; the Imperial warriors activated their jump jets and were upon the Mercenaries before they managed to cut down anymore than two of their number.

Asari warriors were fierce no doubt, but in close combat; an Omniblade was not a suitable weapon against a wave-force Katana without risking getting within their reach, not against more heavily armored enemies that had the advantage of shock and surprise who were facing an already demoralized unit. Limbs began flying and body parts were hacked off freely, leaving those who had survived to shriek with pain and those who had not to slump over to the ground with an odd sort of dignity he had seen many a soldier pass from this life with.

He kept on firing, taking down some of their drones he had seen them deploy, throwing some grenades to try and take a few of them with him. He was a good soldier to be sure, standing against these odds even as some of the soldiers went into; and quickly silenced the pillbox after some very much not silent butchery. But the slight misdirection of a psychic who had been subtly influencing him as soon as the warriors had charged out had caused him to miss one of the warriors approaching him.

He had enough time to turn around to see the white sheathed blade before a stabbing motion sent the blade straight through his chest before an uppercutting motion cut his head and neck in half. With his brain incinerated by the heat of the sword that had ran him through, he saw nothing else as his killer moved on to other targets.

* * *

A smattering of Asari mercenaries tried and failed to stop the steel bear. Already battered and bruised by Katyusha bombardment; they fell with ease to the tusk missile and prism ray barrage as the armored leviathan rolled forth and slammed it's point home with another pair of shells; this time firing armor piercing thermobaric bunker busters meant to blast the enemy right out of one of the last remaining bunkers. With a terrible noise followed by a terrible silence; the once furiously loud battlefield had now become quiet as those who were left rapidly began to surrender. Even the upload trained cloned soldiers started giving up this particular battle if they were unable to retreat or lacked the means to keep on fighting.

As Hannah popped the hatch of her vehicle and stuck her head out of the Doomsday Tank's cupula, her earbud was filled with a sound that she was all too familiar with. "Establishing battlefield control, standby." Tapping a button on her PDA, the image of the commander soon made himself apparent, and a sharp salute was soon passed from the Brigadier to the General.

" _General Williams._ " She said, standing straight up and offering the general a curt, professional smile.

" _At ease Brigadier._ " He said in response, earning a nod from her and the return of her hand to the cupola.

" _Your base has been secured sir, we can start deploying more forces as soon as the situation in space starts clearing up._ " She said with a grin on her face as the vehicles hummed with readied engines.

Some had died, about one hundred twenty men, women, and animals wouldn't be coming back; and fifteen vehicles were lying in ruins. Not to mention the heavy losses suffered to the drones who had valiantly soaked up fire for their organic comrades. New soldiers and vehicles would fill in that void soon, but at the very least; the enemy suffered tremendously for the damage they had inflicted on her unit; more than two thousand killed and a thousand captured with three thousand more routed.

" _Good, you'll be heavily reinforced and be reunited with the rest of your division and corps. We're making landfall to put a dampener on the enemy's production capacity. Hope you're ready._ " He asked as the tank itself took over the duties of projecting his image to the crew.

"Will do sir." She responded.

* * *

 _7th of May, 2368_  
  
The battle for the world had turned decisively in favor of the task force sent forth and commanded by Hackett and Williams, the sorties Dietrich and his wing were making were becoming increasingly less intense as the Pirate fleet shrank more and more to disproportionately small loses by the Allied-Soviets. Increasingly his craft had been sent to mop up the planet side conflict as the Mercenaries had their backs pressed to the wall. Over the days, his craft had been marked with more and more ground attack, strike craft, and large ship kills. Hell his wing had even taken out a pair of dreadnoughts; for which he was damn proud.

Isolated outposts were being compelled to surrender; frequently by blasting them with incredibly loud Dubstep music nonstop until the disruption to sleeping patterns and the constant assault of the same song over and over and over would hopefully convince them to come out and throw down their arms. If such methods failed to produce results; there were always the incendiaries or bunker busters. His aircraft flew over the heads of one the fortresses being so blasted with music his scanners briefly rated at 210 decibels being projected by drone "morale damager" tanks while the troops camped in support of the drones stood well back behind noise canceling barriers. Poor bastards. It wasn't even a good song.

Moving in the triple digit mach speeds; his craft was enveloped in a sheathe of fire as the burning air wrapped around his aircraft's barriers, preventing it from suffering harm as it shot back into space to quickly reach another nearby target. Sure the ships above could have done something about the target he was detecting, but Alliance military thinking always posited that strike craft could deliver ground support more accurately than orbital fire from space. Plus, you could recall a strike craft; you couldn't exactly recall a beam, bolt, missile, or slug fired from the heavens.

In a flash his EVA uplink informed him of a new set of targets. A clash between two entire tank divisions had ended decisively in the favor of the Eagle, but a second mercenary tank division formed out of eight oversized brigade formations was rolling forward to overwhelm the battered tanks before they had the time to seek repairs. From the looks of things, the division wasn't doing so well, already taking a heavy beating from the mercenaries, and as if that wasn't enough motive to get the job done, he got a report that his wife was among the tankers engaged and no dedicated air superiority aircraft were available to cut through the interceptors posted to defend the second tank division to allow gunships and CAS craft a route in. With a punching in of coordinates, Dietrich and his aircraft flight screamed into the atmosphere, banking through it and computer systems detecting the incoming wing of nearly a hundred mercenary aircraft.

The results of atmospheric interceptors being faced with six ace pilots in super-strikers was entirely predictable. Spectrum rays cut forth and methodically chopped down every raider aircraft before their pilots had enough time to register they were under attack. Jetting on past and letting the laser turrets finish off those stragglers who had not been cut down by the initial barrage of prism beams. "This is Echo division requesting immediate air support." Cut in a voice over the Radio.

" _Hold position echo division, we've got targets locked._ " Dietrich responded as him and his five flightmates roared overhead. In an instant his craft's computer designated the targets for his munitions to deal with. In another instant pods opened up and unfurled to release a flurry of missiles from each of the six Achilles craft even as they were acquired by air defense systems. The hulks of broken pirate tanks were strewn about before them, and before the first raider could open fire, the missiles were released; each bursting into submunitions to individually seek out their own targets.

What had once been hundreds of armored vehicles making a charge against the battle damaged echo company was now a pile of damaged and confused derelict hulks with those still standing being targeted with extreme prejudice by the super striker's lower laser turrets or swatted aside by their enormously powerful sonic booms. With the enemy left as a bunch of confused and shell shocked stragglers to be picked off by the vehicles of Echo division, Dietrich thought he'd make a snappy comment regarding the situation. " _Lighted them up like candles._ " He said as his flight finally banked upwards and shot back into space for maintenance on the  _Glory of Nations._  
  
Some time later, his vehicle docked with the gargantuan Alliance vessel in special moors meant just for it. He was tired. Hours of constant combat missions had taken it's toll on him and he was looking forward to crashing in the lounge as soon as he was able to. Firstly, he'd have to call his son and see how he was doing. That was something he had to get out of the way the very instant he could get permission to do so. The pangs of guilt eating away at him for forgetting to do so earlier were by this point; virtually unbearable.

Walking to the outbound contact terminals in the ship as quickly as he could, he brought up a screen as soon as he was at the terminal and waited a few tense moments before being greeted with the beaming face of his son, who waved almost the moment he made eye contact with him. " _Dad!_ " He said, voice bubbly with glee as he made his ecstatic greeting that couldn't help but make Dietrich feel good about himself.

" _Wolfgang! How are you, you little scamp?_ " He asked, wanting to get his worries put to rest as soon as possible.

" _I did all my homework and I made a new friend!_ " He said, smiling at him as wide as he could.

New friend? That was definitely worth looking into. Much more so than the homework anyway, that was something he expected out of the boy.

" _New friend? Who is it?_ " He asked, folding his arms as he sat in his chair while Wolfgang hummed as he recalled him.

" _There's this Turian who moved in when her parents left the hierar...hier...that place Turians come from!_ " Wolfgang said, putting his tongue between his teeth as he tried to fumble with the pronunciation of the unfamiliar word to Dietrich's quick sniggers.

" _And what did you do?_ " he asked, raising an eyebrow once he calmed down enough from the little laughter induced high to ask his question.

" _I went up to her, so I was the first one to say hi! She was pretty shy but really nice after I said hi. Her name's Verona! I dunno why she has that paint on her face though._ " He said, his facial expressions veering from grinning joy to curious small mouthed pondering while looking off into the distance.

" _Is she your girlfriend now?_ " He said, knowing just what kind of question to illicit a look of horror on his face.

" _Ew no! She's an alien and she doesn't even have any hair! Eww. You said I was too young anyway!_ " He said in protest, protest that Dietrich was able to roughly guess was most likely wholly genuine.

" _I was just messing with you Wolfgang, now I should go soon, but we'll talk more later. And don't try ignoring the terminal when we contact you._ " He said, wagging a finger at his son who rolled his eyes before giving an affirmative answer.

" _Bye son._ " He said.

" _Bye dad!_ " Wolfgang said.

* * *

Corporations; Unofficial; Phantom Syndicate;

The Phantom Syndicate is the name given by the intelligence community to what is believed to be a secretive conglomerate of several companies acting together as a shadow trust to evade both Allied-Soviet and Citadel monopoly laws. The current theory is that the Phantom Syndicate was formed around the Mediterranean Syndicate, a prior "shadow trust" based around the mediterranean region of the Earth, and the ex-Allied black ops and research division known as Project Phantom that was officially shut down in the 2070s for increasingly unethical research.

While it is generally known that the companies of the alleged syndicate are in close co-operation, any real legal evidence of their co-operation is nearly impossible to come by, especially as the companies believed to form the Syndicate operate their own worlds distinct from the Alliance Government and have increasingly rooted themselves in the Terminus systems where enforcing regulations is essentially impossible. The companies that are perhaps the most distinctive are defense firms and private military corporations such as Revenant Solutions and Legion Security or the Cyan Suns corporation.

Forces believed to be operating under the Syndicate tend to be heavily cyborgized, with it not being uncommon for those who fail to pay off debts to the company being completely hardwired as wetware to heavy battlesuits that straddle the fine line between power armor and mechanical walkers. Even the dead are afforded no rest as soldiers still under contract are cyborgized into special "Ghost" Battlesuits to keep on fighting. Fleets and motor pools, like with many of the larger mercenary groups; are maintained in large numbers and mercenary companies enjoy the support of ties with Tiberium and Ore processing companies that allow for rapid fabrication.

Companies operating in Citadel or Alliance space are kept under close watch, but many still turn to "Syndicate" companies in search of high tech, reliable, or affordable solutions (a common joke is that buyers are asked to pick two). Companies that are suspected of being under the Syndicate's umbrella range as far from Cola companies to Mercenary groups to Computer science corporations to Legal firms. The supposed syndicate is also believed by many to be behind heavy lobbying for objectivist policies to minimize government interference and attempted culture wars to present profit over altruism as a moral positive.

The Phantom Syndicate's companies operate heavily in Omega and Illium, and it is believed that the company's leadership has heavily shifted towards the Volus over the years as a belief shared by the companies believed to run the organization is that money is power; and business savvy and wealth have long come to be associated with the Volus. Those who study the subject hope that the Volus will be able to temper the vulture capitalism and amorality of the Syndicate.

Conflicts; Robot Storm;

The "Robot Storm" is the name given to the second phase of the Second Tiberium (also known as the Second Interplanetary) war fought from the last month of 2032 to the war's end in 2034, where the A.I known as NEXUS rebelled against it's creators; the Allied-Soviets; and forced an "unholy alliance" of Epsilon, assorted corporations and smaller states, the Forgotten, and the Allied-Soviets to stand against attempted synthetic take over. NEXUS was programmed to ensure the safety, happiness, and well being of all sapient beings, by force if necessary; as well as to coordinate the increasingly larger robotic armies of the Alliance. However, NEXUS began to alter it's own programming to further suit it's own beliefs.

Midway through the war, NEXUS declared that none of the human factions had what it took to be trusted with the safety of organic life and seceded from the Alliance; launching a devastating offensive with a massive synthetic army and legions of subordinate . The war was a brutal and hard-fought affair, with casualties in the nine or even ten digits over the course of two years of conflict. Once embattled factions now found themselves as uneasy partners against the greater machine menace, with battles all over the solar system in hopes of stopping the synthetic advance from forcing it's vision on humanity and cephalopod, parrot, and cetaceankind.

Over the course of the war, the second piece of the Tacitus on EARTH was recovered as part of NEXUS' efforts to restore the Earth's ecosystem and avert the spread of Tiberium on the terraformed planets, which inadvertently also lead to the stabilization of the ecosystems of the Sol System as a whole and in a sense; helped to avert complete extinction of carbon based life in the Sol system. A notable plus for an otherwise devastating phase of an already devastating war. Of particular brutality were the contests between NEXUS' mechanical legions and the vat grown hordes of Epsilon, where battlefields would frequently be left littered with millions of corpses by the end.

But the Alliance managed to secure many machines from NEXUS' rebellion, and the Forgotten and Epsilon both managed to hold, and then push back against the mechanical hordes. After two years of conflict; NEXUS revealed that it had assembled ships and had made once thought to be purely theoretical methods of faster than light travel into reality so that it could embark on a grand exodus. If the sapients of the solar system would reject it's guidance; it would leave them for the time being, promising to return to make things right once it had gathered sufficient strength to do so. A promise that has become the nightmare of many across the galaxy.

One of the most well known cultural effects of the war was the creation of the "dubstep" genre of music by soldiers who intended to mock the sounds produced by NEXUS' synthetic armies by compiling them into music. Depending on who is asked, this is either the cruellest legacy of the war or one of it's most silvered of linings.

* * *

 **Cerberus Consumer Products acquires Elmo's Mission company, plans expansion of business.**  
"Cerberus Consumer Products, owned by corporate titan Jack Harper, has made the surprising purchase of Elmo's Mission, a Latin Confederation company noted for it's high quality hispanic meals; particularly it's Tacos; expanding his corporate empire that includes private military companies, news networks, information brokerage, manufacturing, and financial consulation. Whether this acquisition was made at the behest of the so called Phantom Syndicate that many accuse CCP of being part of is unknown and CCP has declined to comment."

 **Elcor Councillor Jomok retires, ambassador Caelyn succeeds him.**  
"After years of faithful service Jomok has decided that now is the time to retire and pursue his long held dreams of artistic pursuits; citing that he's shouldered the burden of galactic politics long enough to last several life times and wishes to try something else with his life. Caelyn, with the full consent and approval of the other councillors, will be taking his office and hopes to continue efforts to maintain galactic stability."

 **Batarian Hegemony spokesman stirs controversy by giving supportive statement regarding Warlord Skunner.**  
"Outrage has erupted as Hegemony government spokesman Jiulus Mamale states that Warlord Skunner, responsible for attacks on six fringe worlds of Alliance space and recently declared the loser of the battle of Tyranisia, was justified by what he claims is a climate of fear perpetuated by Prime Minister Ackerman's vehement anti-pirate and "batarophobic" rhetoric, claiming that while the loss of life and likely enslavement of Alliance citizens is a tragedy; that it is Ackerman's fault and that the Citadel must work to oust what he calls a "war mongering fountain of hate." before he starts a war."

 **Krogan Leaders meet with Epsilon for continuing talks regarding Genophage cure.**  
"The galaxy holds its breath as leaders of Krogan Clans continue to meet with Headquarters Head Anca Albescu regarding a cure for the Genophage being developed by the reclusive nation. Critics of the cure project claim that Epsilon just wants the Krogan to become part of Epsilon and is attempting to use the offer of a cure to draw them in with as much positive PR as possible. Anca herself claims that Epsilon is merely seeking to undo the injustice inflicted upon the Krogan people by the Council. An important Salarian Dalatrass was reported as "Livid" and claims that Epsilon is toying with dangerous forces."

 **Continuing search for NEXUS forces turn up fruitless**  
"Ever since the revelation that humanity had undergone the so called "Robot Storm" at the hands of the rogue A.I NEXUS and its synthetic hordes, Citadel space continues to search for where the A.I may have based itself to better prepare a defense against any potential incursions. Opponents cite that given NEXUS' lack of activity in the past three hundred years, it is likely that like the Geth, it has decided to isolate itself from the wider galaxy and is unlikely to suddenly change this course of action. Defenders of the search claim that being unprepared for a potential conflict is tantamount to national suicide."

**Forgotten Confederacy condemns Crystal's Fury terrorist actions**

"The Forgotten Confederacy's leadership have once again called out the Crystal's Fury terrorist group for their recent attack on an Epsilon world, claiming that this act of terror goes against all that the forgotten have worked for in the name of advancing the cause of unity between Tiberium mutated and unaffected Sapients. The Forgotten Confederacy says that these acts by an angry minority in no way represent the cause of all Mutates and that they are offering full support in investigations against the organization, and continue to remind the galaxy at large that the Fury is a tiny minority in the mutant population."

 **Allied Soviet Democratic-Communist party chairman claims Hegemony to be an "Empire of Evil."**  
"Chairman Kurtuku Chappeleen of the ruling Democratic-Communist party, well known for being the longest serving Cetacean chairman of the Allied-Soviets, has made a speech many claim is inflammatory by declaring that the Batarian hegemony is an "Empire of Evil" due to continuing the "immoral practice of slavery", "openly backing slavers and pirates", "running a heartless regime that silences its people", "managing an economic system that continually oppresses the working class", "feeding its children a neverending stream of lies and propaganda", and "abhorrent levels of wealth inequality". The Hegemony has responded by calling the Alliance a nation where prosperity is dragged down to support the lazy and that it is a spreader of a dangerous ideology that threatens the rights of the winners in life."

* * *

AN: Good grief that took way longer than I wanted it to. You have no idea how many times I had to rewrite the ending of this chapter from scrap when I decided I wasn't satisfied with the direction I was going. Before I had a massive overly long gratuitous battle scene describing Hannah's engagement with the enemy tank divisions in full detail, and then I decided to try and have her talk to a Turian military observer before I decided that having Dietrich talk with Wolfgang some more would be more natural for the story.

And if you haven't guessed it yet, I am indeed splitting the character of Shepard into two. Wolfgang will be Maleshep, Catalina will be femshep. Though this should have been obvious if you knew what their last names translated into.

Also, Syndicate existing is like the worst kept secret in the business world. It just doesn't exist on publicly seen papers for many of the same reasons that Israel doesn't admit to owning a nuclear arsenal despite everyone knowing it has more than a hundred.


	5. In Deep

(AN: Allow me to say that I apologize profusely for falling subject to massive schedule slip, but I hit a huge roadblock in terms of ideas for the story, however I've decided to come back to it.)

" _Screw 'Em All!_ "

Tagline of Alliance Democratic Communist (Marxist-DeLeonist) Party during the 2365 elections, continued slogan of Prime Minister Howard T. Ackerman

" _I don't believe that we can say that we have international justice when we've allowed the slavery, piracy, and mass murder of the Hegemony go unchecked for more than a thousand years. Sanctions hurt yeah, and usually people give into them, but when they've not given the results that freedom and equality demand; then I think it's time to roll up our sleeves and drag them into the modern age._ "

\- Excerpt from Howard T. Ackerman's "Meaning of Justice" speech.

* * *

_The Citadel, Council Chambers, 3rd of March, 2378._

Lisa Van Doyle straightened her jacket as she gave a venemous glare to the Batarian who was busily rambling on about his case against the Union. Almost certainly another pack of lies about why the latest attack had not only nothing to do with the Alliance, but was also provoked by the Alliance. Well, wait until he heard what she had to say, she thought with a little smirk as the Batarian went on.

" _The Alliance's continued unchecked expansion has continuously driven others to a life of crime out of desperation as they are displaced by the hammer and sickle wielding juggernaut. I ask that this council see reason and see these attacks for what they are, not unprovoked attacks of terror, but responses to the advancing oppression of the Midgard government!_ " The Batarian said.

" _After all, were these attacks not conducted by raiders who had only recently been made aware that they were in the continually advancing sphere of Alliance influence?_ " He said, stooping forward to make it look like he was a pleading beggar, though for all his theatrics the council gave rather little obvious reaction. Councillor Sparatus even seemed somewhat bored, checking his time piece and letting out an exasperated sigh.

" _So I beg of this council to not only not agree to these needless demands for increased anti-piracy operations but place sanctions on the responsible party and work to check and curtail their expansion and encourage a regime change before Ackerman plunges us into another large scale war._ " The Batarian concluded, straightening himself and acknowledging the council. Sparatus at the least, seemed positively enthused that he no longer had to listen to the Batarian.

" _Ambassador? The Council now requests your own statement on this._ " Din Korlack said, the Volus sucking a breath of highly pressurized air. The Volus shuffled slightly on his podium and soon found himself wishing that the council chambers had some damn seats installed.

" _Thank you Councillor. The Alliance of course, denies these vicious allegations made by the delegate of the Hegemony. But we will also provide evidence proving that not only is the delegate selling you bold faced lies, but that his government has made numerous acts of war upon us that the Alliance is no longer willing to tolerate._ " She said, easily going from common name to common name for her home nation.

" _The recent full scale blitz on our worlds near the Skyllian traverse represented an enormous concentrated military endeavor. One that pirates are not keen on engaging in often, not on the level of defenses we had given our systems, or after our highly successful campaign to eradicate Warlord Skunner and his entire support network._ " She said as she had an assistant use the holographic screen inside the room to project the image of the systems in question; showing an enormous concentration of pirate ships assaulting heavily defended worlds in rapid succession.

" _All of this would be reason enough to suspect Hegemony involvement, but the first piece of my evidence to eliminate all doubt is to be found here._ " She said, having the projector display a scene where Alliance peacekeeper marines had chronoported into the disabled hulk of the lead "pirate" dreadnought and were rapidly gunning down troops with a vicious array of Tesla and Spectrum fire while peacekeepers advanced; shields forward, to help with the sweep, battle psychics and imperial warriors breaking up any resistance that could not be handled by the soldiers themselves.

Then came the sudden impact of a powerful missile into an array of such peacekeepers, blasting apart their shields and mangling bodies while sending radioactive polonium dust spiraling outwards to induce rapid death. Other soldiers were immediately forced to take cover as yet another such missile streaked by at which point the footage was halted, with one of the missiles clearly in view.

" _This mark of missile is only issued to Batarian Hegemony Commandos and were developed specifically to counter Allied-Union infantry armor as the AUBSCIN files I have presented to you confirm, furthermore the directive for this is issued from Hegemony High Command itself. The only way they could possibly be in the hands of pirates is either incredible incompetence on the part of the Hegemony or that the Hegemony is placing military troops to help pirates._ " She said as the video continued to play out.

As one of the missile firers was subdued by a Cryo-trooper quickly spraying him in freezing substances, a secondary video was shown, dating to sometime after the battle where the very same soldier was unhelmeted. " _Genetic profiling and facial comparisons along with psychic probing confirmed this individual to be Major General Bar'khat Vuntas, whose official deployment files mark him as stationed on the other end of the Hegemony. But that's far from the most damning piece of evidence we found._ " She said as the video reached the point where the commander of the ship was taken into custody and interrogated.

The Batarian Ambassador quickly shouted to protest "O _bjection! This evidence cannot possibly be considered reliable!_ ", but Sparatus rapidly cut him off.

" _Overruled, I want to hear this to the end._ " He said calmly, earning him a look of puzzlement from Tevos but nodding approval from Caelyn and the Salarian councillor. The Volus and Hanar councillors on the other hand, were of course far harder to read.

During the course of the interrogation by the Alliance's Lensman Psychics, the interrogated Batarian finally let out his confession after more than an hour of resistance before finally deciding to cave in. " _I was under the payroll of the Batarian Hegemony to teach your government a lesson. Make you give up the attempt at settling in the verge, make you look bad._  " He said before further files were released validating the claims.

" _We of course, trusted but verified and found a treasure trove of data that irrefutably places the Hegemony as the instigator of this attack. Make no mistake honored Councillors, the delegate of the Hegemony will try to lie to you and deceive you, but we have the proof of his crimes right there. We only hope that you make the right decision._ " She said, prompting the councillors to open up screens for privacy as they discussed what to do among themselves.

" _Ackerman clearly stated he would go to war if he found evidence of another Batarian backed attack on the Union, you can't allow this to get out of control and waste all that we've spent trying to control the hegemony._ " Tevos said, getting a flash of approval from the Hanar councillor who chimed in with her own opinion.

" _This one concurs, long has this council sought to peacefully dismantle the Hegemony's institution of slavery. Allowing this to proceed would likely make a martyr out of their beliefs._ " The hanar said, remaining perfectly monotone throughout her statement, the gelatinous folds of the being undulating almost hypnotically.

" _We've waited for more than a thousand years and we've barely made any noteworthy progress. I'm tired of trying to strangle the Hegemony's slave trade or its brazen backing of pirates. I say they've damn well earned the right to reap what they've sown and I have half a mind to lend Hierarchy support to the Allied-Soviets._ " Sparatus countered snappily, waving his hand dismissvely with regards to Tevos' arguments.

" _I concur. The Khar'shan clan is not going to let go of their institution without a fight. We've tried the waiting game for centuries. Surely even an Asari can see how futile it is to keep on sitting on our hindquarters and hoping the country crumbles under sanctions. Best to kick the door in and let the house fall I say._ " Din Korlack said, doing his best to pace his breathing while still making it clear that he had no love for the Hegemony in his words.

" _I third this. STG elements in the Alliance and the Hegemony should be able to confirm that the evidence provided is solid, and I can assure you that the Salarian Union's dalatrasses are getting tired of waiting generation after generation for the Hegemony's policies to crack and crumble. I vote for no support to the Hegemony_." The Salarian councillor said before Jaelyn finally cut in.

" _Thoughtfully: All of our peoples have suffered at the hands of Batarian raiders. Continuing thought train: I believe that now is the perfect opportunity to punish the Hegemony for its crimes while shedding a minimum of citadel blood. Decisively: I add my fourth vote to allowing this to unfold, let the Hegemony rot._ " The deep voiced Elcor said, earning a series of nods and a sigh from the Asari.

" _Very well._ " Tevos said before lowering the screens.

" _Ambassadors, this council lays its favor in the direction of the Alliance of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations. The Hegemony Ambassador can inform his government that this council will offer no support in the event of a war._ " Sparatus said, a barely restrained sense of glee positively dancing behind every word like little schadenfreude ladened sugar plum men on a disco rave.

" _Wh-what!? How dare you! The Hegemony immediately moves to withdraw from this Council and C-space for this farce! And you human! You will see just what you have unleashed upon yourselves!_ " The Batarian ambassador spat, his body trembling with anger as he stormed out, his face twisted in an expression of livid rage.

When Sparatus was certain he was out of ear-shot, he spoke up. " _You know? I'm not going to miss him. I might even celebrate._ " He said to the chuckles of some in the room.

* * *

_Midgard, White Kremlin_

The decision to declare war on the Batarian Hegemony had already been made in the minds of most of the parliament. All there was left to do was to actually vote to declare it. And there to make his plea to get that declaration was Prime Minister Howard Ackerman himself. Standing on his podium; he was surrounded by the people of parliament and the figures of the press who all waited for the bald man's words. He had promised the Hegemony ruin if ever the situation devolved to the point of making a general war desireable by the populace. Now they were going to see the full wrath of the Allied-Soviet war machine.

" _My countrymen, my fellows of our democratic nations. Today we have presented to the Citadel Council irrefutable evidence that the Batarian Hegemony is behind the Skyllian Blitz, and as promised I have made ourselves ready for the occasion that war is brought to us. Now, let me assure you, we are, and have always been a peace loving people. But when our citizens are in danger, it is our duty to act. And act we shall. The shit licking cowards at Khar'Shan started this war, and I bet they're already dreaming of dictating peace terms right here at this Kremlin._ " Ackerman started, periodically sweeping his gaze from parliamentarian to reporter to parliamentarian.

" _But they're not going to get that chance. Because we're strong in our liberties and in the solidarity of our people in one another. Because while we haven't sought this war, we have prepared for it. Because they're fighting to protect an institution of slavery but we're fighting for our safety and our freedom, and ultimately; we'll fight for their freedom too. We're not going to pull punches here. We're not going for anything less than the unconditional surrender of and the dissolution of the Hegemony and the destruction of the chains binding the terminal stage bourgeois dictatorship of the Hegemony. Because by God we're going to make the Galaxy safe for Democracy and Socialism. We're going to leave their whole damn institution of slavery and piracy on the ash heap of history._ " He said, slowly stirring up his voice to the applause of the rest of the parliament, though he raised a hand to quiet everyone.

" _The Hegemony may have wanted this war, but they aren't going to like the outcome. Because we're going to drag each and every member of their ruling Junta on Khar'Shan and put him or her on trial and we're going to set their slaves and people free from their servitude. Because we're not some enemy who is going to rest while a government that supports slavery and piratical attacks on innocent beings is allowed to stand. Because we're pretty damn fucking angry and they've been pissing on us and dancing behind our patience, love of peace, and tolerance for decades. But no more, they want war then? Then by God we're going to wake them up!_ " He said, to the standing ovation and applause of the rest of the parliamentarians.

" _So I ask of you, fellow lovers of freedom, equality, socialism, democracy, apple pie and borscht. Make the right choice, not just for us, not just for the Batarian people languishing under their caste system or their slaves or their exploitive economic system, but for the galaxy. Freedom isn't free but I fully believe that we're prepared to pay the price for it. So I'm gonna ask you this once, are you going to vote for peace and let the Batarians keep on getting away with this? Or are you going to vote for war and end their immoral institution and smash their cruel and totalitarian state while giving them a well deserved serving of humble pie?_ " Ackerman asked, to the intensified ovation of the parliament and the reporters.

* * *

News Broadcast

" _War!_ " The headlines rolled as the aftershocks of the declaration rippled across the galaxy.

" _On this day, April 7th 2367, the Allied-Union of Soviet Democratic Socialist Nations has voted to officially declare war on the Batarian Hegemony, but has issued a statement that it has considered the prior Hegemony backed attacks upon it as a part of the ongoing conflict between the two. Statements by Allied-Soviet spokesmen have stated that this war will not be a limited one, but will be one where the entirety of the Allied Union of Nations will throw itself into the complete defeat of the Hegemony._ " A Turian anchorman said on Citadel news net, with videos of a triumphant military parade being shown behind him.

" _As you can see, the Alliance military is out on parade as they expect a total victory in the coming conflict that pundits are already lining up to bet on. Our war correspondants are already on the field in the first zones of conflict in this new war. Sirya, how's it looking at the frontlines?_ " He asked, the video feed switching over to a world in conflict to an Asari ducking in her trench due to the impact of Batarian artillery while vengeance missiles streaked overhead at some distant target.

" _It's complete chaos here, Batarian and Allied ground forces on the planet are in a whirlwind of violence at the moment, they're firing just about everything they've got at each other and two armoured columns look like they're about to hit each other!_ " She said as the wailing roar of multiple rocket launch systems soon started to drown out her words and the sonic boom of low flying strike craft prompted her to quiet down even more while explosions went off in the distance.

She urged the Camera drone upwards to get a better shot, showing a landscape consumed by tracer rounds, directed energy weapons, fires raging out of control, and explosions bursting all over the place while the sihlouettes of infantry and vehicles could be seen, their images being lit up by the light show of the war despite the darkness of the planet's night. Immediately the drone set itself to low light vision to get a better image of the conflict as a scene that could best be described as the apocalypse unfolded all over the camera's field of view.

As enemy troops continued to advance closer and closer, deployed began to open fire while transforming variable weapon turrets based on technology similar to the IFVs let loose with artillery fire, arcing shells crashing amongst the batarian lines while charged up Tesla coils let forth mighty arcs of electricity that reduced men to ash and tanks to slag. Flak turrets with brackets of missiles on their side suddenly swung to life, alerted to the presence of incoming projectiles and spitting forth clouds of black death and streams of glaring missile contrails. As the incoming intruders into their airspace drew closer, quick-firing automatic and directed energy weapons also opened up; seeking to put down the swarm of rockets fired from Batarian MRLS positions.

Some rockets could be stopped, but not all of them. The reporter dived for cover as the world shook and rumbled around her, dust throwing itself into the air as scars were dug into the earth. After thirty seconds, the barrage ceased and she ventured a peek into the world above once more, finding many of the defenses devastated from multiple direct hits. Numerous soldiers lay dead or dying in pieces and the Batarians seemed poised to exploit the gap in the lines. " _We have, troops here, hit hard by a rocket bombardment. I can't be sure of the casualties but-_ " She said before the sound of gunship engines forced her attention skywards.

" _-Hold up, we've got an airstrike incoming, they're moving in for an attack run! Get down everyone!_ " She said as she threw herself back into cover while her Camera drones continued to try and get the scoop. Some alliance gunships like the Warhawk liberator were made for ambushes and pop and drop engagements spanning long periods of time, relying on stealth, agility, and stand-off . Others, like the muscly Wolfhound Havocs tearing through the skies; were almost intermediaries between gunship and ground attack craft, going quickly in a straight line after lying in ambush position firing a huge number of munitions while having the durability to take hits and return home to do it all over again. These gunships were of the latter; their shark faced fuselages spitting flames from powerful guns while proton missiles exploded amidst the ranks of the enemy's vehicles. Infantry not chewed up by cannon-fire were doused with unguided rockets while a mirage generator dropped to show that the Batarians had wandered towards an outpost of a much larger base with all manners of guns pointing at them. Outnumbered and with the gunships turning around to hem them in, the Batarian scouting force raised its hands in surrender.

" _The whole scouting force has surrendered. Ountumbered and outgunned they've decided to give up the fight to the Alliance base. Hold on; one of them's coming to speak with me now._ " She said as a dolphin in a suit much like an enlarged tesla trooper's armor system stomped up to her, looking at her through it's visor as it started clicking, the speech being translated as it left it's beak like snout.

" _Lieutenant General Flakkoikiki Yukokee here ma'am. I understand you have questions._ " The Dolphin asked, the mechanical arms of his suit folding behind the armor in a gesture mimicking humans standing at ease.

" _Some in the citadel have expressed worry that the Alliance may seek to wipe out the entirety of the Batarians, citing Ackerman's inflammatory rhetoric about smashing the Hegemonic state and severely anti-hegeomy public opinion within the Alliance._ " She said, looking up at the cetacean who rapidly clicked it's jaws and let loose a rapid series of clicks that went untranslated, but what she guessed was likely laughter.

" _Ma'am we have no intentions of genocide or anything as crippling as a genophage for batarians or anything of the sort. What we are going to do is destroy an institution that has stood for chattel slavery, caste based divisions, and near limitless exploitation of it's lower classes. We are going to cast down aiders and abetters of piracy, organized crime, the slave trade, and oppressive Terminus system dictatorships. We do not seek to annihlate or conquer the Batarian people; we seek to free them._ " He said, his voice stern and unwavering in his convictions.

" _But some say that Slavery is a part of their culture and you have no right to infringe on it."_  She said, personally disagreeing with that statement herself, but knowing she had to try and give every side a voice.

" _Slavery was a part of many earth cultures too. from ancient indentured prisoners of war to industrial chattel slaves to twentieth century prison labor and Epsilon's slave miners. We realized that to take a person's labour from them without recompense and against their will is wrong, and it seems most of the galaxy has also realized this. We reject the idea that tolerance means standing by and doing nothing while evil is being done in the name of culture, faith, or ideology. These are things meant to serve the people, not to be their masters._ " He said, his voice rising somewhat as he grew irritated at yet another variation of this question.

" _There are also widespread rumors that other powers might join the war. We have reports that show that the Turian Hierarchy is strongly considering at least supporting anyone going to war with the Batarians, and numerous Asari republics have voted for measures strongly against the Hegemony. We also have rumblings from the Confederacy and the Volus. On the other hand, many Terminus systems states are feeling very nervous about the commencement of the war. What would be the Alliance opinion about the war expanding?"_  She said, looking closely at the beady eyes of the sea-mammal who snapped his jaws together before opening them again.

" _We would be delighted to welcome any comrades who would join us in our struggle to smash the Hegemony and while any who would seek to place themselves on the wrong side of history would be regretfully our enemies as well; we will not be dissuaded from our course by a simple shift in the odds._ " He responded. " _For both our people and theirs, this conflict must be waged to a successful conclusion_."

* * *

_Planet Yherac_

Wolfgang von Schafhausen breathed in some air, filtrated through his helmet. Having signed up for the special forces as soon as he could after being enrolled in a military secondary school, he had managed to work his way up to N6, and now it was time to show his superiors what he and his comrades were made out of. With his helmet combining features of the old German paratrooper helmet with a faceplate reminiscent of the flak troopers of the third and fourth world war; he saw the world out of a straight blue, one-way visor and his breath exhaled through the plate that covered the rest of his face deemed unneeded for his ability to see. He had grown into a tall, well shaped man at just about two meters with a lean and mean physique and his golden blonde hair kept in a neat windswept cut. He had gotten the nickname of baby-face from his comrades who teased him about his lack of facial hair and his fresh-faced appearance, but a beard wouldn't have been particularly comfortable in the helmet and his looks got him appreciative looks from more than a few girls in his unit. There was also the nickname of "Sauerkraut" which he did his best to ignore.

He checked through his inventory of weapons. His trusty Tesla rifle was functioning at full capacity, his Prism pistol was at the ready if things got to the point of needing it, he carried a kinetic burst shotgun in case of close quarters operations, a kinetic burst submachine gun in case things got really hairy; his armor came with wrist-mounted flame-throwers and grapple beam launchers; a single missile was readied on the jump-jets if needed, a small collapsible sniper rifle was there if he needed it at any point, and he carried no small number of grenades to go with it. He even carried some S.H.R.I.N.K and M.A.S.S discs as utility items. He definitely came loaded to bear, that was for sure. For close combat, he had an omnitool ready on either hand, as well as wave-force bayonets. While not quite the equal of a wave-force sword or a mass effected mace or hammer, most people would probably not want to be on the receiving end of those.

Implanted in him, among other things, was a biotic amp, with his talents having been discovered when he went into military school. The Alliance was in the unenviable position of being behind the citadel in terms of Biotics and behind the Dominion in terms of Psionics, making any potentially discovered biotics a valuable commodity to the Alliance.

And now he was nervous. The target was a series of Batarian war factories continually producing tanks for Batarian troops on the planet Yhreac that were bogging down Allied offensives in the area and even pushing many back. Obviously, it had to go, either captured for Alliance use or blown to pieces, and orbital defense platforms were making bombardment too risky and air strikes have proven incapable of taking them properly out of commission. " _Hey Wolfgang, you scared boy?_ " Asked Yakov Ivanovich, the big bear of a man being both substantially older than Wolfgang; having seen thirty two years of life, and substantially heavier. His deep voice almost seemed to rumble out of his throat, and his heavy desolator armor only made him seem even larger.

" _Slightly, just slightly._ " He said with a nervous chuckle before gulping. He dearly hoped that he could do his parents proud, and another part of him was even more concerned with coming back in one piece. He clutched his tesla rifle tightly in his gauntleted hands, the mechanisms of the suit moving as he did as the estimated time to drop ticked down on his HUD. The transport bucked a bit, turbulence from the swept wing mirage cloaked bomber spreading it's wings to slow down.

" _We'll be fine, I'm sure of it._ " Katerina Vladmirovna Ivanovna said, the Combat engineer shifting on her feet slightly. One of the spunkiest members of the group, Katerina was also older than Wolfgang was, but you'd never know from how the peppy redhead carried herself; positively bouncey with her exuberance and her enthusiasm for the Alliance's cause. " _I mean, we went through our session of Chinese parliament to make sure we knew what we were getting into right?_ " Katerinasaid, and she was right; the Unit's Soviet went through High Command's plans and made their own modifications based on their more immediate intelligence with every member of the operation having a vote on the affair.

" _Gah I hate all this waiting._ " Akifume Shinzo grunted, sucking in some air and looking damn unhappy about it. Transferred from Imperial regiments, Shinzo brought his psychic abilities and close combat expertise to the team, but the man always seemed a bit on edge.

"Why's that?" Wolfgang asked, quirking a brow beneath his helmet.

" _On the ground you can set the terms of engagement. Here all I can do is hope we don't get blown out of the sky. And I know you are gazing intently at me Vera._ " He said, not even turning to look at the team's sniper and her target marker, John Paul Bundie. "I _would hope that you can focus on the mission at hand rather than trying to undress me with your mind's eye._ " He said; telepathy letting him reach into the unguarded and unhelmeted mind of the sniper. The black haired woman scoffed in response, fixing her hair into a bun.

" _Oh don't worry, I'll make sure to leave some for you compadre._ " She said with a wicked, devilish grin once she finished with her hair and picked up her rifle; a weapon whose design philosophy descended from the weapon of the famed Miles Morales, who she herself had descended from and wished to surpass. Though with the likes of Natasha Volkova around; the competition was going to be stiff being wildly optimistic.

 _"Can we not bicker?_ " Joseph sighed, with Jenkins also adding his voice to the opinion dissenting against all the back and forth going on. " _Yeah, it's damn unprofessional._ " Jenkins said, holding his rifle close to his chest.

" _It's just some friendly talk._ " Katerinasaid with a grin beneath her helmet, clearly in the mindset to not let anything get to her this day.

" _You all talk a bit too much for my liking. If we can maintain comm discipline during the operation I'll count it as a minor miracle_." Liu Han said, cutting through the conversation as quickly as she could, the Chinese woman checking the screens that showed the outside world repeatedly. As a biotic she was someone who most troopers treated with a bit of reverential awe; controlling mass effect fields remained rather novel to the Alliance and quite a few people would have some trouble telling you what was biotics and what was psionics without a manual at their fingertips. It also brought her and Wolfgang together as friends, and made this squad rather unusual in having two biotics among it.

" _She is right, you could all do with a bit of piping down._ " Valerie Thomas said, the dark skinned N7 operative; clad in blue marked armor that bore a short black tunic and more distinctive, more flared pauldrons and a helmet whose respirator parts always made her look like she was frowning being one of two people meant to observe their performance from the ground.

 _"You're going to be deploying with regulars, other N6ers, and some of the N7s you're all chomping at the bit to join. Your performance here is going to determine whether you're just going to be the best of the rest, or join the cream of the crop. It may also determine whether you have a future in the Alliance military or a future as a name on a wall of martyrs. These aren't the pirates we've been beating up on before, these are professional military men. They have been educated on how to hate and kill you from birth. But their training is not perfect, many of them have surrendered before and we expect others to surrender in the future. If they do surrender, I do not want to see any of you deciding that this is a hard galaxy that needs hard folks who make hard decisions._ " She said, her voice stern and hard and utterly devoid of any hint that its speaker was in the mood for nonsense and shenanigans.

" _The eyes of the galaxy are on us and they expect us to fight an honorable war and so do our people. The batarians soldiers and their mercenaries are people just like any of us. Compromising on our promise to all the oppressed peoples of the universe for the sake of expediency is not the hard decision. Taking the morally reprehensible choice because it's quicker to do or takes less resources or teaches them a lesson is not the difficult choice. The hard thing is taking prisoners when it stretches our resources or you just want each one of them to pay in blood. The hard thing is stopping or slowing the advance or retreat to help civilians or letting a terrorist go to save his hostages. The hard thing is doing things the hard way because it's also the more righteous way. So I had better not see any of you going down the wrong road._ " Valerie said, all the soldiers standing at attention and remaining silent as she spoke.

" _That clear?_ "

" _Yes comrade!_ " Came the response.

" _Good_." She said with a smile at last as Antione de Leon; the leader of the outfit; bearing his N7 marker proudly, the Major's distinctive capped helmet having much eye-pieces rather than a long visor, the rebreather/vocoder carrying a similar "frown" to Valerie's helmet, his mechanized pauldrons almost seeming to point slightly upwards, the blood red markings on his suit, and his armor's tunic certainly making him stand out, stepped up to the plate.

" _We are deploying in ten seconds; I want to see you all descending close to each other and close to our heavy support. Those robot tanks and drones will save your life, I guarantee it. Now, when I make a command, I expect you all to follow it unless the circumstances would make that impossible or an unneeded sacrifice of your life. I expect you to carry out orders with initiative, not just mindlessly do what I do._ " He said as the bay opened up behind him, prompting the sergeant to rush them through the bay to jump out; with Yakov being the last one to come out before a number of robotic units followed them out. Other bays on the plane opened up to let other squads out, while other planes dropped their own payloads of soldiers on top of the Batarian industrial site. Wild weasel strikes went across the base, trying to occupy or destroy anti-air defenses to let the dropping soldiers get down without incident.

Even with the efforts to try and tie up Batarian anti-air assets, some remained available to open fire on the descending troops. Some of the troops fired up their packs and maintained a level flight; the Rocketeers sweeping across the battlefield and opening fire; pulsing shots strobing towards the ground as the night sky sihlouetted Wolfgang and the others. "+ _Everyone alright?_ +" Wolfgang said as he tried not to look at the ground, letting his altimeter inform him of how much time he had until impact.

"+ _Doing just fine here!_ +" Katerinasaid, offering him a thumbs up as she plummeted towards the Earth, a soldier from another unit being "licked" by a stream of rounds that made them start to tumble in their descent, falling towards the ground in a dead slump. Another was struck by an SAM that made the trooper disappear entirely in the fireball's blast, and Wolfgang dared not look to see what may have been left of him. Another squad was annihilated by a stream of anti-missile lasers that carved through them like turkeys, and a third was annihilated by HMG fire before the nests were silenced by a Vindicator diving down and raking their positions with its gatling accelerator.

" _Shit!_ " He said as two robot tanks were destroyed by ground flak, followed by a Warhawk Liberator gunship that tumbled right on out of the sky. "+ _Shouldn't we try to fall faster?_ +" Wolfgang said as Antione assessed the situation, waving his hand in a negative gesture to him.

"+ _That would make coordinating our landing too difficult, stay on course, the war factory is right beneath us!+_ " Antione said, with Wolfgang amazed by the calm in his voice.

"+ _How are we making our entrance?_ +" Vera said, chewing her lower lip as the HALO jump approached its destination at a rapidly increasing rate; with not even the somewhat lower surface gravity of the planet relative to Midgard taking the edge off of the incredible rush of descending at tremendous speeds.

"+ _Yakov has shock absorbers._ +" Valerie said with a grin to Vera's confusion.

"+ _He's going to smash through the ceiling!_ +" John shouted over the comms as Vera's eyes widened at the descending bulk of the enormous desolator, who seemed to be ridiculously pleased with his method of entry given his cackling laughter over the comms. Oh boy, Wolfgang thought, Yakov already seemed crazy to him but this seemed to just take it to the next level.

"+ _What about the other squads?_ +" Jenkins said, looking at those squads converging their drops towards the roof of that war factory in particular.

"+ _We'll have others joining us of course, try not to embarass this squad while you're working with them! Now, fire retrothrusters!_ +" Antione said as he righted himself and fired off his grav-chute's engines to slow himself down, followed by the others save for Yakov who just rocketed on past them, his huge frame descending at great speeds and whistling as it went through the air just before his now forming sonic boom rustled Wolfgang, making his stomach do all manner of knots.

"+ _Those suits can survive that?_ +" Wolfgang said with surprise.

"+ _They don't make them much tougher than large scale battlesuits comrade, they've been doing higher drops than this since the fourth world war._ +" Katerina said as she fired up her jets, with each member of the squadron doing so in turn. Then Yakov slammed into the roof of the war factory like a penetrating bomb, crushing a section of roof beneath his impact and only then activating his thrusters to slow him down so that he only cracked rather than shattered the floor beneath the roof.

A flash of radiation registered on his suit's scanners as Yakov let loose with rad-cannons and the immensely toxic and corrosive desolator defoliants and Wolfgang let in a bit of a gulp. He had heard that large scale desolators were a rather unpleasant thing to find yourself next to, but watching Batarians melt into puddles of goo was something else entirely. "Oh man..." Wolfgang said to himself as Akifume passed by a shocked looking Batarian patrolman on the roof, withdrew his Wave-force blade, and cut him in half before kicking the corpse over the roof of the building, opening fire with his carbine before jumping down.

Wolfgang hit the ground second, his thrusters bringing him to a gentle landing inside the war factory and into a hailstorm of fire. "Good day tovarisch, the catch here is quite good, please; do help yourself." Yakov said as rifle rounds pattered off his shielding, jets of defoliant lashing out at the Batarian soldiers firing at him. He fired fired a special corrosive spray that reacted with the cover the Batarians were hiding behind in such a way that the following spray of defoliant melted through the metal like it would flesh; the Batarians barely having enough time to scream before they were covered in the glopping liquid that no amount of slowing from kinetic barriers could prevent from touching the bodies of the Batarians. Armor, flesh, bone, and weaponry were reduced to nothing in no time, little more than foul smelling puddles that hissed and bubbled as they started eating into the floor until they had completely reacted themselves into inertness.

Not wasting time, Wolfgang's combat reflexes kicked in as he sought cover, hurling greeting the batarian reinforcements who were as of yet; unaware that their comrades had been slain with bursts of electricity from his tesla rifle. The blue arcs of energy streaked across the combat area with breath-taking quickness and struck the lead batarian with enough force to blaze a hole in their armor and set about its grizzly work on their flesh, rounds pockmarking the cover he took while the electricity burst out of the struck batarian; a large stream aiming for another Batarian while smaller streams leaped at any other targets they could. The smaller streams hurt the other batarians, but it was the primary tributary bolt that managed to get him a second kill; repeating the process twice more until it simply lacked enough energy to keep on going.

"+ _Heads up!_ +" Katerinasaid as she announced her arrival with the firing of a grenade from her rapid firing launcher, the explosive round forcing more of the Batarians back before she switched to her automatic shotgun and let loose hellstorm of mass accelerator rounds; all blazing red with incendiaries, created an on demand conflagration that bought the group some time while the rest arrived. " _Hey...where's Shinzo?_ " She asked, looking around; only for the psychic to quickly cut in. "Right behind you." He said as he emerged from his position, having focused on trying to pick out thoughts that might lead them to their destination and thus stayed behind cover.

" _Drones are here._ " Liu Han said as she jumped into the room, a set of terror drones and a pair of hovering robot tanks making their presences known. The terror drones skittered as their analyzed the situation, the squad EVA updating to list the robots as attached to their unit, followed by smaller tech-drones and the pair of medical, crisis drones who would ensure that everyone was in tip top condition.

" _Any left for me?_ " Vera said to Antione's chagrin as he jumped down into the room and surveyed the area.

" _War is not a kill contest Vera. It's about who achieves their objectives without exhausting their resources and who doesn't._ " The French man said with as he let a small camera drone into the hallway standing in front of him. The drone hovered for a bit and looked through both possible routes noting that the room was clear. Making an advance with me gesture, Antione lead the way into the next room, drawing his twin proton pistols as he did so.

The howls of Varren soon put Wolfgang on edge as Antione ordered "+ _Watch yourself for Varren and keep them from aiming their shots properly. Yakov is too big to fit through this room so he's going to have to go in another way with one of the robot tanks_.+" He said, the rushing of the alien predatory beasts preceding the arrival of Batarians with shields copied from Alliance Peacekeeper units, shotguns presented as they moved in a tightly knit phalanx also copied from Peacekeeper building clearing forces.

" _Shit, they're learning!_ " Jenkins said as he opened up fire with his kinetic burst mass accelerator rifle, soon joined by John, Vera, Liu Han, and Akifume as cover was quickly sought. Liu Han thought quickly while Wolfgang fired up his Tesla rifle, keeping the Batarians worried about advancing farther, Akifume still being busy trying to work his psychic tricks on the minds of the Batarians but finding that their well disciplined psyches were well proofed against psychic tricks. As Valerie revved up a Prism cannon to hose the area down with suppressive fire, Liu Han and Wolfgang made the gestures needed to create a biotic barrier of sufficient size to catch the varrens; aided by Shinzo who cut his feed of energy into his attempted telepathy to try and join his telekinesis with their biotics to stop the Varren cold; then all three threw the caught Varren with enough force to launch the predators into the air, sending them at the Batarian phalanx.

Breathing out quickly, Liu Han dived back into cover as the Batarians shuffled backwards to avoid their comrades, some breaks in their shield line giving Antione the space he needed to pump packets of charged particles into the openings; bolts of energy slamming into Batarians from his pistols and sending them sprawling from the loud pulses of power that smacked into them with a sound like an electronic version of a drumbeat, while Katerinaand Wolfgang opened up with grenades and tesla fire respectively.

Thinking fast, wolfgang threw a pair of frag grenades, then another pair of cyro-grenades at the batarians, ducking back behind cover after confirming a kill shot with his tesla rifle on a trio of varren that had recovered from being launched. The Batarians doubled backwards under shield cover to draw away from the detonations, which provided just enough distraction for Katerinato input some commands into a robot tank to lead it into the hallway, the hovering drone traversing its turret and speaking loudly and clearly with a voice like thunder, its main gun punching through several batarians and its anti-personnel machine guns forcing their heads down.

"+ _Where are the terror drones?_ +" Wolfgang asked.

"+ _Right behind the robot tank._ +" Liu Han responded as she opened up to try and keep the heads of the batarians down.

"+ _Bring them in now!_ +" Wolfgang said, managing to catch Antione turning to him and nodding with approval as the skittering, insect like drones rushed forward and let loose ear splitting shrieks as they leaped into the Batarians, bladed limbs and cutting tools meant to carve into tanks making short work out of simple infantry armor and flesh. Some buried themselves into chest cavities, others simply cut open limbs or stabbed into heads and hearts, some disembowled their targets, and others just lacerated to the point that they just bled and died. But with their formation broken, the Batarians could do little but die; with the Adept among them trying to aid his fellows with his biotic powers being singled out for a head rupturing shot from Vera's sniper rifle, his body flopping to the ground as the crack of her rifle faded from the air.

Jenkins was clearly doing everything he could to pointedly ignore the dead bodies while John resignedly sighed as he brought up a map of the suspected building plans. "+ _The best place to place charges to blow up this place shouldn't be too far from here. A staircase on the other end of the hallway should lead us to the most weight bearing parts of the facility._ +" He said as he looked over the holographic map.

"+ _Didn't commandos used to blow up buildings within seconds of entering? Like the Tanyas or Volkov?_ +" Jenkins asked, stepping well past the pile of dead batarians.

"+ _These are a lot larger than your typical MCV produced war factory, it's just not gonna be that simple._ +" John responded.

"+ _Well, then; Yakov; are you ready?_ +" Antione said over his comms.

"+ _Yes comrade Major, I can arrive just about when you will._ +" Yakov responded.

"+ _I'm sending the second robot tank back to reinforce you then. Try to be there when we arrive._ +" Valerie said as she designated her commands to the robotic machine, which scurried into the hole, along with gun armed tech drones to try and provide Yakov with as much firepower as they could afford to spare him.

"+ _Follow me comrades._ +" Antione said, pointing to the stair case. "+ _Other squads, I want you to move up to reinforce us._ +" Antione ordered, acknowledging their responses before he advanced down the staircase, followed by the rest of the squad. An eerie silence soon followed, with the most distinctive thing being the sudden absence of Batarians who had once swarmed over the area.

" _I don't like this, these stairs are an easy way to bottle up our advance...why stop fighting now?_ " Wolfgang said, sweeping his helmet clad gaze over the area as he checked for avenues of ambush, the coils of his tesla rifle humming and throbbing as the electricity within almost screamed for release.

" _I'm betting it's am ambush._ " Katerinasaid as she walked next to him, her grenade launcher out just as his Tesla rifle was, Wolfgang turning his head towards her and sighing.

" _It's not exactly polite to eavesdrop you know?_ " He said with a little coy smirk beneath his helmet.

" _You don't exactly talk quietly when you're talking to yourself._ " Katerinachuckled.

" _I don't think you talk quietly in any circumstance Ella._ " Wolfgang shot back, grinning beneath his helmet as Katerinapunched him in the shoulder.

" _Would it kill you two to find a room?_ " Vera said with some measure of disdain to her voice, rolling her eyes at the two Germans as she advanced with her assault rifle, maintaining a steady rate of breath.

" _Shhh!_ " Liu Han said harshly before Valerie turned towards the others.

"+ _Shut your bloody mouths._ +" Was all she said and all she needed to say over the comms.

"~ _Finally._ ~" Akifume said through his telepathy as the group approached the door, with Antione giving a halt signal to the rest of his team as he walked towards the door and quickly forced it open via his splicing skills picked up in N-7, turning towards the opening door and seeing other Alliance troopers filing in.

"+ _All troops, get to your positions and prepare to set charge-_ +" Antione never managed to finish before an anti-materiel round slammed right through his helmet and sent the contents of his head out the exit hole made by the bullet, with similar decapitating strikes being made at the other identified officers. Immediately the comms were filled with confused noise as panic set in.

" _Major!_ " Valerie shouted before a round went through her chest and threw her onto the ground; killed practically instantly by a munition meant to deal with armored vehicles.

"+ _Get down!_ +" Wolfgang ordered as he moved into cover, the Batarians unveiling their trump cards, crack regular troops rather than the prior conscripted fodder as well as mercenaries from the Blood Pact, the Talon, the Eclipse, and the Phantom Syndicate's assorted PMCs such as Legion security.

"+ _Well, well, well. I knew I could rely on the Allied-Soviets to try and put these factories out of commission. That they chose this as an N6 training ops was a surprise though. Not an unpleasant one however. In one stroke I can cut down a whole crop of N7 operatives to be and their officers. Oh I'm sure there are plenty more of your kind where you came from, but this should be the one of many humbling lessons for you damned reds._ +" A voice said over the comm systems as the gathered Batarian forces started opening fire again, pinning down the already demoralized allies.

"+ _Your kind may have thwarted the Skyllian blitz, but rest assured that the punishment that will fall upon you for marching with your lunatic of a prime minister into war with us will be most fitting. For too long have you humans and cetaceans and whatever other species crawled out of your planets been allowed to grow without check or balance. But now that full scale war has been declared, we'll look forward to dictating terms on Midgard, I think annexation will do._ +" The voice said again as Wolfgang tried to take count of the situation. Pinned down by mass accelerator, railgun, rocket, gyrojet, and monowire fire, he decided to deal with anti-vehicle fire first.

" _Vera, John, Jenkins, lay down some sniping fire. John and Jenkins; go for the infantry, Vera, use that anti-materiel rifle on the battlesuits. Katerinaand Akifume, come with me, I want to see if we can play some havoc with their systems. Liu Han, try to provide some cover in case anyone gets close; put up sentry guns. You two over there._ " He said, gesturing to where he wanted everyone to go as well as sending them their data over their their EVA units, he then pointed at a peacekeeper in specialized armor with space for extra tools and a figure in a Siege Cadre prism trooper set of armor with special valves emerging from the head, identifying the two as a combat engineer and a psychic respectively.

" _Join with Liu Han, give her what cover she needs and try to help her set up defenses._ " He said as he looked for a way to get his plan into action before looking at his EVA and going to Yakov. "+ _Comrade Yakov, what's your ETA?_ +" He asked, desperately hoping Yakov could be on the field soon.

"+ _Not too far away comrade. I rendevouzed with my fellow large scale battlesuit wearers and picked up some robot tanks on the way. Hope you don't mind of course, I wanted to bring as much firepower to the fight as I could._ +" He said with a surprisingly easy chuckle.

"+ _Well just hurry up, the basement is the site of an ambush and we need all the guns we can get on our side. Our lives are in your hands comrade, so please, please be careful with them._ +" He said as he cut off the feed, then looked up and saw a quick route to walk ways leading to a control room on top. "+ _Comrades, I'm going to head to a control room where I can rain merry hell all over their parade and warn the other strike forces of the ambushes. I need all squads to draw fire away from me so I can move up there unhindered. Focus fire on the targets that are capable of threatening you past your cover; deal with heavy weapons, battlesuits, and snipers in that order first before worrying about the others. If you see enemies trying to close distances, focus on them first, if any of you have jump jets and wish to join me, feel free to do so, but only if you are not needed at the lower levels. Try to remain calm comrades, I know that the situation looks grim but all our bretheren are counting on us to do our duty. If this factory and others like it stand, this planet could stop the whole advance for months. So it's up to us to tear out the industrial heart of the Batarian war machine, for the people, for the Alliance! URA!_ +" He shouted into the comms, with the cry of "URA!" being echoed across the room as the Allies found their targets and their courage once again, this time adding their own heavy weapons fire to the mix in spades, the Batarians and mercenaries reeling from the sudden strikes.

Designating a terror drone to follow them while Akifume collected the proton pistols of their fallen comrade Antione, he turned his attention to the level above them. Putting power into their jump jets, he, Akifume, and Katerina landed on the ground of the walkways of the second level with a distinct thud as a number of Turian mercenaries firing into the lower levels of the Factory's bottom floor were raking the area with assault rifles and machine guns. Starting up his tesla rifle, he shot into the pair, not even watching as their twitching, blackened bodies fell off the rails, the insulated boots of the trio keeping them safe from the electricity conducting into the grating. As they charged through, Katerina let loose a proton grenade, the low velocity shell spinning as the fin stabilized munition made some final adjustments to explode in the middle of a Batarian fire team, the powerful grenade tearing apart bodies and throwing others off the railing, the survivors screaming as they fell to their deaths.

Turning to look above them, Akifume fired off a quartet of proton bolts above him, the bolts punching right through the grating and striking a Krogan wielding a gatling gun in the back, his armor and shielding failing in succession before the blood pack mercenary's ragged corpse flopped over the rail, with Shinzo telekinetically lobbing a trio of grenades into their midst, the blood pack soldiers noticing the incendiaries just soon enough to panic before they detonated amongst them. Just then, Yakov and a number of other heavy battlesuits and robot tanks came smashing through the walls, Yakov snorting as the robot tanks elevated their guns and let loose shells into the higher levels, aiming at the battlesuits that had taken up residence there while he aimed his nozzles and rad-cannons upwards and let them have it; arcing tesla bolts, heavy munitions, cyro-sprays, prism and spectrum beams, vacuum shells, mag-beams, and proton weaponry all being unleashed upon the Batarian forces, who faltered for but a moment before turning their focus to the new arrivals.

As a Mars pattern battlesuit busily reloaded its railguns after taking out an alliance battlesuit, with a second being brought down by repeated application of anti-tank missile fire following constant machine gun fire to draw the Tesla Trooper's shields down, the devastating thunderclap of its large hypersonic munitions being audible across the room, the other two of its four rail guns seeking targets; a little terror drone leaped at the Syndicate designed battlesuit. The drone scampered on the shoulders of the battlesuit and started tearing away, making its way towards it's "head" and quickly cutting it open with close range spectrum beams and wave-force limb blades, giving it a hole to enter the suit itself. The Battlesuit twitched and jerked as a muffled scream came from within followed by a wet noise and a gurgle before the drone exploded outwards, shrieking as it leaped onto the next victim; the Batarian's four eyes widening before two of his eyes were gouged out by the vicious little robot.

Following the drone was Akifume, who charged at distracted Batarian anti-tank troopers; propelling himself faster than he normally could go with his psychic abilities as he let out an adrenaline raising shout and carved the first trooper's head clean off, then ducked down before making a forward step to make an upper cutting bisection of the next, then stabbing a third downwards through the head as he rushed forwards; Wolfgang raising a biotic barrier around him to bolster his durability while Kate let loose some gun drones who drew focus away from the others. "We're almost there." Wolfgang said mostly to himself as he noticed an incoming Varren and quickly shot it thrice with a quickdrawn Prism pistol, the alien predator shrieking and then expiring as the scattering beams boiled, bubbled, and burnt its flesh away.

"+ _Sir, we're taking heavy fire here...Not sure if we can make i-urk!_ +" Said a voice he identified as..

"+ _JOHN!_ +" Vera shouted as her spotter went down.

"+ _S-sir, John just took big hits from enemy snipers, want me to try dragging him out?_ +" Jenkins said, and from the EVA link, Schafhausen could see that Jenkins had a clear shot at pulling back.

" _Yakov, try to get some cover for Jenkins, let him pull back with John._ +" Schafhausen shouted, with the desolator shouting back with

"+ _I'll try sir. No problem, they'll be safe in no time._ +" Yakov said jovially as he moved to try and get them to safety. But noticing the reshuffling of troops, the enemy reshifted some of their focus. A stream of missiles was fired at John and Jenkins as they pulled back, with Yakov doing as he was expected to and maneuvering to block the missiles, his shields holding fairly well as he retaliated; but a pair of turrets then followed up with IFV grade mass accelerator fire, pushing Yakov back and back before a crack of a pair of railguns slammed into and through his suit, which went limp as the guiding intelligence went dead inside, streams of blood coming from behind the battlesuits as another set of missiles exploded behind the now inert battlesuit, consuming Jenkins and John in fire.

Schafhausen's helmet filled with the sound of three flatlines within moments of each other and he for a moment, seemed lost as to what to do as Kate laid down fire from her grenades to deal with troops opening fire on their position. But a smack into his shielding from mass accelerator fire soon reminded him of where he was, and with a quick series of blinks he shoved the incident into the back of his mind. He was running on Adrenaline now, and turned his frustrations on incoming Vorcha who had struck him earlier; giving them a healthy dosage of burning liquid to the face from his wrist-mounted flamethrower. They screamed as they burned, and he was quick to make use of his tesla rifle, jumping above them with his jets to get back with his compatriots.

Landing in front of the door of the control room, he quickly applied some explosives and moved to the side as the door breaching charges did their work, letting the three and their terror drone inside. Following them came a fresh-set of terror drones and a whole fire-team of N6 operatives who had also fought their way into the area; the operatives levelling assorted weapons and shouting at the Batarians before opening fire. In a quick firefight, the outnumbered batarians who had weapons on them and the pair of Syndicate Legionaries who raised their gyrojet rifles only to be focused down and cut down; with the remainder quickly throwing their hands up.

Looking around, Schafhausen noticed an additional Batarian snarling as he started pressing some buttons on the terminal. " _You're too late human, I've set this facility to self destruct. Know that I am Ka'hairal Balak and that this day will be the bitterest of victories for you, two eyed scum._ " He said as he edged near a door before slamming a button on the wall that conjured a force field in front of him; one that seemed capable of deflecting even Schafhausen's tesla rifle as the Batarian beat a hasty retreat, a signal being sent to the remaining Batarian troops to evacuate the factory.

" _Ugh that fucking worm!_ " Katerina said, a scowl forming on her face before she rushed over to the terminal and gave it a look before her expression turned very solem beneath her helmet. "We can either try and deactivate the force field and run after him or we can disable the self destruct Schafhausen; we can't do both." She said, her grim sounding prognosis sitting poorly in Schafhausen. He sighed and an internal conflcit played out in his mind. On one hand, he could try and tell all the people to evacuate and save some of them while he chased Balak to try and bring him in to see what intelligence he had...but he wouldn't be able to save all of them. Remembering the words of Valerie, he made his choice.

" _No, we're not letting anymore people die. Not on my watch, both the prisoners and the Deactivate the self destruct. Inform other troops waiting to make second wave drops that the other factories are likely containing similar traps._ " Schafhausen ordered, shaking his head and exhaling tiredly, hoping he was making the right choice here.

" _Yes sir._ " She responded, and after a few tense moments, the base's self destruct sequence was halted, and a coded message was sent to other waiting strike teams that the factories had ambushes ready.

" _I suppose it's over then._ " Akifume said, sheathing his blade in its scabbard.

* * *

_N7 Heavy Cruiser; Vertigo's fist, a week later_

Admiral Hackett; who was overseeing the war effort in the region sat in his chair as the gathered N7 hopefuls who had made the cut were speechified by the presenter, and he was absolutely sure that they were all as bored as he was. Finally, Schafhausen; whose decisions had helped rally what could have been a disastrous operation, stepped up to look at the N7 Commander, a pony tailed woman by the name of Victoria Sanders, whose auburn hair shined a bit in the glaring light of the ship. Having already given the brevet to Vera, Akifume, Katerina, and Liu Han, she had saved the best for last so to speak. She gave a stiff salute to the young man, who looked rather sharp in his dress uniform.  _"Wolfgang von Schafhausen, thanks to your quick thinking, you had managed to salvage an operation that very well may have been completely lost. And for that, you are not only being presented with an N7 rank, but also the "Paladin of the Alliance" award, our highest honour. Though you may have lost men and your overseeing N7 operatives in the face of a well laid ambush and heavy fire and faced overwhelming enemy odds, you managed to prove yourself worthy of a place in the halls of honour. Wolfgang, we are all honored to have you here with us, and you do us all proud._ " She said, handing him both his medal and his N7 brevets, to the applause of the room, especially from his parents who were among the most enthusiastic clappers.

Then Admiral Hackett took his chance to stand up and shake the hand of the new War Hero. " _Son, I know it's not easy losing comrades in the face of battle, but your service to the people and your skills have shown an uncommon degree of valour that makes be believe that you have great things ahead of you. I know it couldn't have been easy to make the choice to let Balak get away, but the intel we have gained from the prisoners of war almost certainly outweighs what one man could offer us. In addittion, you saved the lives of countless soldiers and for that, you have my utmost respect. Now, I have it on good word that the Prime Minister and Chairman would like to speak with you at the White Kremlin as soon as possible._ " Hackett said as Wolfgang's expression suddenly became quite bewildered.

" _A-ackerman and Chappeleen?_ " He said, scarcely imagining why on earth would the head of government and the head of state of the free world would want to speak with him. But well, when you get that kind of invitation; you just don't refuse it, no matter what country you're from. " _Y-yes sir it'd be my honor._ " He said, trying to regain his composure from the sudden shock. The remainder of the ceremony passed by like a blur for Wolfgang before he found himself talking to his parents after the ceremonies.

" _I'm not sure how to feel really. I won, I suppose, but I can't stop thinking about the comrades who died there because of my orders._ " Wolfgang said with a sigh, looking at his parents who gave him sympathetic, and empathetic really looks as Hannah put a hand on his shoulder.

" _Every commander loses soldiers Wolfgang. Many of them even lose them without spending their lives well. And it's okay to let yourself be broken up about that. But we all have to move on from grief sooner or later Wolfgang. If we hold onto it, it consumes us and in the end we only lose more as we let sorrow rather than sense guide our decisions._ " She said, pulling him into a hug.

" _And Wolfgang, you're still a hero no matter what, the Batarians, the high command, Epsilon, none of those can ever take that from you now. You've done us prouder than we ever thought possible._ " He said, placing a hand on Wolfgang's other shoulder.

And yet, in his mind all Wolfgang could think of was. " _I don't feel like a hero._ "

* * *

_Far away_

An ancient intelligence observed the news being played with solemnity. This was taking strange and unusual courses. A mind hundreds of millions of years old had seen something new. "But not truly of their making. The hands of the other are at work." It mused to itself, the consciousness of tens of millions of minds melded into a single being. To it, the overwhelming majority of all life to have ever evolved in this galaxy were as little more than mayflies. Passing motes in the weave of histories that spanned for millions of years. But the others were strange, the others were old even by their standards, with even the long dead makers not remembering a time before the others who sowed the seeds of poison with which to harvest. Even its kind paid these ancients a wide berth and a grudging respect, having been burned several times when they tried to subject them to the same manner of harvest they would other species.

It reached its mind out to the most dominant intelligence of its kin. " _The circumstances are changing at an unacceptable rate. We must alter our paradigms. Our efforts at ensuring that none of the seeds of the others reach those who are connected to our work have failed. If we act now, we may contain this divergence before our operations become threatened._ " It beseeched this intellect, but a child's voice constructed long before even it had become what it was now then chastised it from across the galaxy.

" _The cycle must continue as we have planned it. This alteration will be to our benefit when the time comes, but they have not shown us that the cycle must be changed yet. You will wait until the previously designated time of action. This will not be altered. If you worry so much, then I will allow you to bring no more than nine others of your kin; two greater, two lesser._ " It said, to the ancient being's palpable annoyance. It had frequently chafed under the hand of this ancient intelligence, but there was currently nothing it could do.

* * *

Weapons technology: Kinetic Burst

Developed by the Pacific Front of the Allied Nations under the lead of the Empire of the Rising Sun, Kinetic Burst weaponry is known for two things; huge velocities and a literally burning after-effect. Using rapidly expanding plasma to propel rounds at tremendous speeds, Kinetic Burst weapons were initially conceived of as a way to greatly increase rate of fire. It was then found that thanks to no longer needing a case, substantial weight and space savings could be made as well; while the plasma proved superior to conventional chemical propellants at attaining high velocities. It was also found that it was possible to have a polymer shell around a bullet be part of the formation of the plasma, further increasing speed and wreathing the bullet in a shell of plasma; giving the distinctive blue tracer effect as well as giving rise to the incendiary abilities of Kinetic burst weapons.

Following the Earth-native discovery of the mass effect, Kinetic-Burst weapons were often married to more conventional mass accelerators to combine the effects of both weapons, leading to extremely high velocity munitions with a powerful after-burn. While incompatible with freezing munitions for obvious reasons, these Kinetic Burst Mass Accelerators (KBMA) are popular among troops with short deployments, where the increased complexity of these weapons comes into play less and their benefits can come to shine. To compensate for not being able to accept freezing munitions mods, the Alliance hands out specialized freezing munitions such as grenades, temperature reductor beams, or supercooled ice-water/liquid nitrogem sprayers.

Military organizations: Alliance N7 Special force operator Bureau

The inheritors of numerous prior special forces outfits such as the Combined American-Canadian SEALs, the Western European Alliance Unified Special Air Services, The Warsaw Pact's Spetsnaz, the Pacific Front's Unified Super Snetai Force, the Socialist Pacific League's Special Operation Force, and the Latin Confederation's Revolutionary Unconventional Mission Task force; which themselves were conglomerated from numerous smaller special forces, N7 represent's the Alliance's top level of special force units. Training is difficult and consists of several N-grades, also known as proficiency levels. Due to the Alliance's continued expectations of war with opponents with substantial manpower advantages, recruitment is allowed to start as young as age sixteen or the equivalent age for other species. Traditionally; only students with prior experiences in cadet programs or military schools volunteer at this age. Despite popular belief, entry into the N7 is not on an invitation only basis, a confusion that has arisen out of a common mixing up of the Department of Ungentlemanly warfare, which is an invite only organization with the N7 Bureau.

Recruits in addition to standard physical and mental training also receive a number of enhancements to ensure that each soldier is in the prime of their condition. While certainly not brought to the extremes of alteration that can be seen in forces such as Epsilon, the Confederacy, many private military forces; these enhancements are of the best quality that can be offered by the Alliance and range from nanite injections to genetic splicing. In essence, N7 is comprised of posthuman (or dolphin or octopus) warriors. Little stigma is attached to failing the training course, as the demands placed are heavy by any standards and even so much as an N1 certification is a badge of much respect.

Training consists of zero-gravity experience, combat drop operations, chronospheric insertions, stealth, standard combat training covering ranged and close combat experiences, and at least basic familiarity with tasks such as operating vehicles and combat engineering as well as counter-psychic and biotic tactics. Education is not only administered in a standard manner, but also by direct cerebral information upload so as to speed up the process. At the final degree of training, N6, recruits are tested in actual combat scenarios under the designation of "VDV"; and if their performance is deemed worthy, are finally granted the coveted N7 designation.

N7 maintains it's own chain of command separate from the Alliance Unified Army, the People's Navy, the Allied-Soviet Centralized Bureau of Intelligence's Department of Ungentlemanly warfare, the Allied-Soviet Experimental Science Division, and the Allied-Soviet Peacekeeper Corps. In cases of clashes of command and rank, typically commands will be deferred to the commander with the most seniority and demonstrated competence in the relevant situation, as well as consultation with the units' assorted councils who voice their own opinions and concerns regarding operations. Commanders try to at least listen to each other and move in support of one another.

N7 maintains its own ships and its own motor pool, designed to facilitate special forces operations while the Navy engages in line combat, the Army lands troops, the Peacekeepers maneuver to act in shock actions, the Department generally engages in "espionage in force", and the Science Division is largely regarded as a support or hail mary oriented force. Relations with the other branches of the Alliance military are generally cordial, and while interservice rivalry exists; it is generally kept to the arena of inter-service competitions such as sporting events.

Politicians: Howard T. Ackerman.

A firebrand from the Alliance's Democratic Communist party, Ackerman is a diehard believer in all the most stereotypical ideals of the Alliance. Democracy and Socialism will work together to free all beings, and one cannot truly have one without the other. Born to farmer parents on the planet of new Idaho who had strong internationalist beliefs, Ackerman quickly came to dominate school politics, being the seemingly perpetual leader of the youth wing of the Democratic Communist party in every school he attended before taking up a job as an editor at a newsfeed with a strong passion for the superhero genre and a noted interest in spiders as well as the Robot Storm. When he entered the wider political scene, he proved to be a man of extremely strong opinions with little patience for jargon or obfuscation. While generally pro-Citadel in his beliefs, he was far from unwilling to criticize what he saw as unfair citadel policies and frequently made digs at the more capitalist and less democratic portions of C-space society.

A man with a burning loathing for most of the polities of the Terminus systems; the Batarian Hegemony in particular, Ackerman is generally regarded as a Hawk politician. And unlike many other hawks, who tend not to be veterans of serious engagements themselves, Ackerman fought on Hellenia against Epsilon and served against numerous Terminus system raids and skirmishes with the Hegemony and the Dominion. He favors peace whenever possible, having strong opinions about what makes a war worth fighting, but if he believes that conflict will be the only solution, it is staggeringly difficult to make him shift course. On the Hegemony in Particular, he is a passionate arguer that peaceful solutions to the Hegemony have failed for centuries and will only continue to fail and that the only course left to safeguard against their threat to equality and freedom is to put paid to the Hegemony once and for all.

He also reserved essentially unlimited scorn for the Unitary Epsilon Dominion; deriding them as a huge cult disguising themselves as a country, claiming their Corporatist-Technocratic system was little more than a rebirth of the worst policies of the 20th century; including Stalinism and Fascism and was also simply a friendlier face put onto the system put in place during the period between the firing of the Mental Omega device and the onset of the first generations who knew nothing save for Yuri's rule. He has been known to call Yuri "Nothing more than a chickenshit bald weirdo with a basement cult around himself, his brainwashed daughter, and his gullible friends who somehow went and found a whole country for himself, and one whose time is going to come rushing towards them real soon." Among other less than print-worthy remarks.

Eventually coming to dominate the Democratic Communist party, Ackerman lead them to a successful majority government, defeating numerous competitors and coalitions of competitors to attain more than a two thirds majority in the houses of the Central Executive Council in the 2365 elections, and has continued to enjoy electoral success. Regarded as essentially the face of Alliance politics, Ackerman is known as being an extremely blunt man in person who disdains hiding what he thinks behind political terminology. He frequently uses profanity, prefers to use common words to explain difficult concepts, and has personally insulted numerous people he found disagreeable, ranging from heads of state or government to dignitaries to reporters.

* * *

**Alliance-Hegemony war continues to rage!**

"The war between the Alliance and Hegemony, one of the first full scale wars between major peer powers in decades, has continued to rage as the long building tensions between the two powers finally boiled over into war. Both Kar'shan and Midgard have vowed to fight this war to the destruction of the opposing state and attempts at mediating the conflict have failed. After an initial six month period of advances in one of its two prongs for its "pivot to midgard" strategy, the Batarian Hegemony was halted in a disastrous space battle at Tor'bophar that had not only devastated the Hegemonic fleet but has wiped out numerous pirate gangs and smaller mercenary outfits in their totality while its second prong was attacked by the Allies before they were ready to maneuver, and the Allies' own moves to the Hegemony capital are progressing a pace. However, those who believe in an easy victory are cautioned that the Hegemony is a vast polity with a great deal of resources and is likely to call upon whatever assets it can to defend itself."

**Jack Harper makes unusual statement**

"In response to queries about what famous business tycoon Jack Harper thinks of the present conflict, the notably pro-human but simultaneously arch-capitalist Terminus tycoon simply said "I think I"ll go make an omelette" and cut off any further inquiries into the topic there to do exactly as he said; go and make an Omelette, leaving the wider galaxy without answers and already starting a widespread extranet meme as people quote Harper's statement either verbatim or making their own twist on it. Showing that while a off-colour statement can be over and done with in a few seconds, the Extranet really is forever."

**Epsilon Dominion troop movements on the rise**

"In response to the recent outbreak of war between the Hegemony and the Alliance, the Dominion has begun to move a massive number of soldiers from its enormous military in a move that is said to be "Simply a guarantee of safety for the people of the Dominion" by the enigmatic Yuri. Pundits who have long speculated on what the outcome and effects of a war between the Hegemony and the Alliance would be have also now started to wonder where Epsilon will place its bets. While the Dominion does engage in trade with the Hegemony and is a long time rival of the Alliance from the two's formations, the Dominion's own desires for influence within the Terminus systems have frequently clashed with the Hegemony's desire to maintain its powerful position within the Terminus region."

**Confederates declare WAR!**

"The Forgotten Mutant confederacy has voted for war against the Batarian Hegemony citing "decades of grief and suffering brought about by raiders, slavers, mercenaries, gangsters, and pirates operating with Khar'shan's money that must be repaid with interest against the Batarians and their lackeys who would have sought to break us." Some claim that the Confederacy's declaration of war is simply opportunistic, believing that the Confederacy is simply joining with the Alliance because they believe that the war against the Hegemony will result in a quick victory that will offer gains to the Confederacy."

**Anti-Hegemony sentiment in the Hierarchy is on the rise**

"Many Turians and other client species have taken to the streets on various worlds across the Hierarchy today stating that the time is now to "punish the Hegemony for centuries of slaving while we sat by and did nothing but throw embargoes at them!" Others also add that "acting now will see billions of slaves languishing in Batarian chains free before the end of this decade". Currently, the Hierarchy maintains a stance of pro-alliance neutrality, offering economic and indirect military support such as advisors, supplies and weapons, attaches, and volunteer regiments. However, this can always change given the right shift in Palaven's political winds."

* * *

AN: I'm so very, very sorry that this took so long. I just felt so drained on the whole concept that I couldn't put any ideas to paper for the longest time. But the muse has reclaimed me once more and so I return to this project; hopefully not to disappear for another nine months making no updates. I'll try my best to work faster but I can't really make any promises. People offering to beta read for me would be of a * _ **huge**_ * help though.

And yes, that is the Catalyst yanking Sovereign's leash and yes that is Ackerman in the 2300s. (And yes, Cherdenko will eventually make an appearance; SPAYCE)

The next chapter will focus back on the Epsilon side of things as we see what kind of woman Catalina has grown into and get a better look at both C-space and Epsilon.

You may also notice that sometimes I will create minor species out of whole cloth when I have a character design in mind but find none of the extant species satisfying. Some polities, generally minor C-Space members, Turian Client States, or out of the way Terminus Systems polities will also be created from whole cloth on occasion to fill in some gaps between the space filling empires.

If I ever do get it in my mind to write something that would drive this above the T-rating, I'll always split it off into a one shot; generally to fill in blanks left by fade to black or very vaguely described scenes.


End file.
